Three's A Crowd
by sinderella0069
Summary: Sequel to Living Arrangements and I Think We're Alone Now. When Connie returns to Beach City for the holidays, nobody could be happier than the Crystal Gems, who always knew she and Steven were destined for each other. Whether they like it or not. This is an older!Steven x Peridot story, you have been warned.
1. Chapter 1

Sequel to Living Arrangements and I Think We're Alone Now. I seriously do recommend you read those first.

This is an older!Steven x Peridot story. If older!Steven x Peridot stories are not your thing, I suggest you turn back now, because I will not be all that happy if every single comment I get is a complaint that it's an older!Steven x Peridot story. You have been warned.

XXX

THREE'S A CROWD

After three months of non-stop stalking and harassment, Hannah finally had her tormentor wounded and cornered. With trembling hands, she gripped the gun tighter and pointed it at the masked figure again. "WHY!?" she wailed. "Why are you _doing_ this!? What did I ever do to you!? I don't even _know_ you!"

The figure laughed softly and staggered forward, holding their injured arm. "Are you sure you don't know me?" They reached up and in one swift movement, pulled off the mask that hid their face. "Because when I look at you, I feel as though I've known you my whole life." Hannah gasped and dropped the gun. The face was as familiar to her as her own reflection. Because the face that looked back at her was her own.

It was clearly supposed to be a 'wham' moment, a twist that would send the audience running to social media in shock and awe. Unfortunately for the show's creators, their audience at that moment weren't paying the slightest bit of attention and had, in fact, only put the TV on to drown out any noise they might make while making out. Even the sudden high-pitched alarm from Peridot's computer went unnoticed for several seconds before she finally realized what it meant and disentangled herself from Steven's arms. "My decryption program! It finally worked!"

Steven forgot his disappointment in an instant and stood up to join her at the computer. Two weeks earlier, Peridot had transferred all the data from the computer in the Kindergarten control room over to her own computer and had then spent several nights writing a program to decrypt the files. Since then, the program had been running constantly, but with no success. Until now. "What is it?" he asked, leaning over her shoulder. "Anything about corruption?"

Peridot's eyes quickly skimmed over the text document. "It looks like a report about some-"

She was interrupted by a knock at the door, and she crossed the room and opened it to reveal Pearl standing on the other side. "Why is your door locked?" the elder gem asked.

She sounded almost offended at being denied access to part of the house, and Peridot frowned. "I can't just go walking into _your_ room, why do you think you should be able to come into mine?"

Pearl pursed her lips and looked past Peridot. "Well then, why is Steven locked in your room too?"

Steven blushed self-consciously, but Peridot was unmoved. "Because I'm allowed in Steven's room. What do you want?" she asked, quickly changing the subject.

"Oh, I thought I heard the alarm from your computer." She straightened up and looked eagerly down at Peridot. "You said it would sound if your program was able to decrypt any of the files and I just wondered…" She trailed off and looked hopeful.

Peridot relented and stepped aside to let the other gem in. "You heard correctly. My program has successfully decrypted a file," she boasted.

"Just the one?" Pearl asked.

"Well… yes," Peridot admitted, deflating slightly. "But now we know it works," she added a little more brightly. "So I anticipate greater success in the coming days!" She walked back over to the computer and scrolled back up to the beginning of the file as Pearl leaned over her shoulder to read. "This appears to be a report detailing some of the earliest fusion experiments." The enthusiasm she'd felt upon successfully decrypting the file began to fade as she read the gory details written in the report. "Um… I'll let you inform Garnet."

Pearl quickly skimmed the first few lines and shivered. The shards of two Ruby soldiers (and she had her suspicions about which two they might have been) had been taken to the laboratory for the initial experiments. The report then went on to suggest that a Sapphire should be obtained as soon as possible so that experiments into different-gem fusions could begin. It was most definitely _not_ something she wanted to bring up with Garnet any time soon. "Oh no, it's _your_ program that's produced results," she said instead. " _You_ should be the one to inform Garnet."

"Inform Garnet about what?" came the unmistakeable voice of their leader from the doorway.

"Garnet!" Pearl spun around, looking flustered. "We ah, we were- we were um, just about to come and find you!"

As Pearl twittered beside her, Peridot sighed internally and stepped forward. "My program has decoded one of the files from the Kindergarten. But it doesn't contain any useful information, so you needn't trouble yourself…" She trailed off as Garnet walked forward, making straight for the computer. "Or you could just ignore me, that works too," she muttered under her breath.

Garnet did exactly that, leaning forward and rapidly scanned through the document. Pearl, Peridot and even Steven all watched her warily, but all that happened was that she finished reading and stepped back again. "Good work. Let me know as soon as you decrypt anything else," she said, and turned and walked out before anybody could actually respond.

"Well… that went better than I expected," Pearl said after a moment of silence.

Peridot picked up her computer mouse and pulled a face. It had been crushed into a small ball. "I suppose it could've been worse," she conceded unhappily.

"We can buy another one while we're out," Steven reassured her.

Pearl's ears pricked up at this. "You're going somewhere?"

"Yeah, there's a computer museum in Empire City," Steven explained. "I was telling Peri about it and she thought it sounded fun."

"I believe 'funny' was the word I used," Peridot corrected with a smirk.

"And they've got a retro gaming section too," he added happily. "I'm going to play the original Lonely Blade game, it'll be great!" He pulled his phone out of his pocket, glanced at the screen and frowned. "Actually, we'd better hurry up now or we're gonna miss the bus."

"Well, how about I come along too and drive you there?" Pearl suggested at once. "I'm sure Greg wouldn't mind if we borrowed the car, and I must agree with Peridot." She laughed lightly. "A human computer museum! How quaint!"

Steven and Peridot exchanged glances as they both wracked their brains to think of a polite way to put her off because of course, the small detail they'd left out was that their trip was actually a date. "Um, we were kinda planning on having dinner there too," Steven said slowly. "I know you don't enjoy that sort of thing and we wouldn't want to make you uncomfortable, so we're fine catching the bus."

"But thank you for your generous offer," Peridot added, inching towards the door.

"It's fine, I insist," Pearl said firmly. "I'll simply browse some of the shops while you two eat. We need some groceries anyway."

And so, because they couldn't think of any other reason to deny her, they gave up and a few short minutes later, the three of them were all piled into Greg's car, heading down the highway towards Empire City. Steven, in an attempt to pretend he couldn't feel the waves of annoyance radiating off of Peridot in the back seat, fiddled with the radio until he found a station playing classic rock, but before he could lose himself in the music, Pearl reached over and turned the volume down. "Sorry," she apologized. "But I need to concentrate on the road."

"Oh, right, sorry," Steven apologized as well. An awkward silence fell over the little group. He glanced up at the rear view mirror and then quickly tore his eyes away as he caught sight of Peridot glaring back at him. In desperation, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and opened up the news app, which he immediately realized was a terrible idea because everything was awful. Murder, murder, rape, celebrity death, more murder… "Oh! The first episode of that Harry Potter TV show has been leaked online," he exclaimed. "Wow. It hasn't even been announced yet."

"Would you like me to download it when we return to the house?" Peridot asked.

"What? No! That's illegal!" Steven glanced up and met her eyes in the mirror again. "…Can you do it without being caught?"

"I managed it with every episode of Camp Pining Hearts," she pointed out.

Pearl frowned, remembering her own brush with the law a few years previously. "I would prefer it if you didn't do anything illegal in the house," she began.

"The house that's a base for the rebel gems that fought a war against Homeworld?" Peridot raised an eyebrow at this, but decided not to pursue the issue. "It's fine, I'll just download it onto the computer in the Kindergarten."

"And they're making a live-action film of The Lion King," Steven continued reading. "Wait, what? How's that gonna work? Are they gonna use actual animals?" he mumbled to himself, tapping on the headline to read the rest of the story. But before the page could load, the phone suddenly chimed and vibrated in his hands, making him jump. "Ooh, text from Connie!"

"How _is_ Connie?" Pearl asked brightly, glancing over at him for a moment. "And… what was it, college? And her creative writing course?"

"She's fine. And college is fine." Steven skimmed the text and smiled. "Actually, she's just finished. She's coming home tonight."

"So it's all done then?" Pearl checked. "She doesn't have to go back again?"

"Uh… no, she's still got three years to go," Steven explained with a smile.

Pearl tutted as she turned her attention back to the road. "It seems rather a waste of time, if you ask me," she muttered half to herself. "It's not as if she's learning anything _useful_ , like history or politics. Still, it will be nice to see her again. And Stevonnie."

"St-Stevonnie?" Steven stuttered in surprise. Behind him, he felt Peridot start at well and once more, his gaze flickered to meet hers in the mirror.

Pearl smiled serenely, seemingly unaware of the tension caused by her words. "Yes, I know you two had a spot of difficulty last time, but that was a long time ago. Perhaps all you needed was a little time apart."

 _A spot of difficulty._ That was a slight understatement, Steven thought to himself. After several months of intensive fusion training, they'd suddenly had trouble forming Stevonnie and keeping the fusion stable, until Connie put her foot down and flatly refused to even try any more. "You know, she just wants to train as herself," he said warily, but Pearl waved away his concerns at once.

"Connie's a good warrior, but she's still only human. The two of you are a much more efficient fighting team when you're fused and now she's had time to calm down and think about it, I'm sure she'll understand how important Stevonnie is." Pearl beamed at him. "You two are such a good couple. You make a wonderful fusion, you should be proud of that."

Steven didn't dare look up at the mirror any more.

xxx

A few hours later, the small group came to a halt outside a restaurant, and Pearl wrinkled her nose as she looked inside at all the people eating. "Are you quite sure you don't want to come shopping with me instead?" she asked Peridot doubtfully. "Digesting is just so…" She stopped and shuddered.

"Quite sure," Peridot said firmly. "I rather enjoy partaking in these Earth feeding rituals." She opened her mouth to add that the whole point wasn't so much the eating, but spending time with Steven while he shared his knowledge of food, but then she snapped it shut again. Knowing her luck, if she said that, Pearl would decide to stay with them. "Enjoy your shopping," she said instead.

"We'll call you when we're done," Steven added.

Pearl gave the diners one last look. "Very well. Enjoy your meal, I'll see you later."

As soon as she was out of sight, Steven's shoulders slumped as he finally relaxed and took hold of Peridot's hand for the first time. "I'm so sorry, I couldn't think of any way to stop her!"

Peridot brushed away his apology at once. "It's fine, it's not your fault. At least we're alone now."

"Yeah, that's true." Steven smiled down at her. "And Pearl doesn't like even _watching_ other people eat, so we should be safe for a while." He gave her a gentle nudge with his shoulder as they walked inside the restaurant. "We could have a date tonight if you like? To make up for this one?"

"Mmm. Perhaps." Peridot wrinkled up her nose slightly. Her enthusiasm for 'dream dates' had quickly worn off when she discovered that they were causing Steven to suffer from extreme fatigue. And although they were fun, she couldn't be as affectionate towards him as she really wanted, because he tended to lose control of the dream. Plus as they were just dreams, she could never quite remember exactly what had happened afterwards. "We did one just a couple of days ago," she said by way of an excuse. "You slept until two the next day."

"True," Steven admitted. He fell silent as the hostess appeared to show them to their table, but once they were seated, he spoke up again. "I just… I wanted us to have a nice date today, that's all. It seems like half the time we try and have a date, someone ends up crashing it, y'know?"

"I know." Peridot hesitated for a moment, and then said, "maybe we should tell them. About us."

Steven grimaced. It wasn't the first time she'd suggested telling the others, and so far he'd managed to put her off. "We don't have to tell them just yet," he began once again. "We've only been dating two weeks-"

"And how much longer are we going to be dating for?" she cut in. "I mean, do you see this as a long-term relationship? Or-" She swallowed hard and tried to keep the wobble out of her voice as she continued. "Or is this just…"

Before she could finish, Steven grabbed her hands, appalled. "What!? No! I love you! I wanna be with you and live with you and grow old with you, however the heck that works with us."

Peridot blinked back sudden tears and gave him a watery smile. "Wow, thanks." She took a deep breath and regained her composure. "I guess I sort of knew that, really. But you keep asking me to keep us a secret and I don't understand why. If our relationship is serious, they'll find out eventually, won't they?"

"Well, yes," Steven admitted. "But-"

At that moment, the waitress appeared to ask if they were ready to order. Steven asked if they could have a few more minutes, seeing as neither of them had even opened their menus yet, and took advantage of the brief interruption to try and work out how to explain himself. "It's complicated," he began as soon as they were alone again. "The gems, they all think Connie and I are dating."

"I gathered that," Peridot said a little bitterly, recalling the conversation she'd overheard in the car.

"We're not though," he hastily added. "And we never have. We're just friends. But…" He paused for a moment. He didn't like to admit to his girlfriend that he'd once had a crush on somebody else, even though it had long since fizzled out. But explaining the way people had treated him and Connie was the only way he could really explain his reservations now, so he carried on. "I… kinda had a crush on Connie back when we first met. It didn't last, it disappeared when I got to know her as a real person and not the fantasy person I'd spent a year making up in my head, but the gems always remembered how I acted when I first met her. And then, um, she kinda started developing a crush on me instead."

He blushed and ducked his head, trying to avoid Peridot's piercing gaze. "I just ignored it and hoped it would go away like mine did, because I liked being friends with her. But it didn't, not for a long time. People started assuming we were girlfriend and boyfriend and I didn't wanna correct them and hurt her feelings, but when I didn't deny it, they figured it was true. And they wouldn't stop bringing it up. If I asked for some money to go to the movies with Connie, Dad would be like, 'oooooh, going on a date then!' And when we did fusion training, Garnet would always suggest that we stay fused a little longer afterwards, just for fun. Amethyst would joke about me making food if she came over, saying I'd be a great househusband, Pearl…" He thought back to Connie's initial swordfighting training and grimaced. "Anyway," he continued, "when Lars died and came back different, it was like a switch had been flicked. Connie suddenly realized just how dangerous all this gem stuff was and that she could really get seriously hurt and I might not always be able to save her and she didn't want that. She was just a kid, it shouldn't have ever been her responsibility to save the Earth. And her parents figured it out too and put their foot-"

He frowned. That wasn't right. "Feet?" That didn't sound right either, and he could see that Peridot was getting confused too. "They figured out they'd gone too far," he said instead. "They'd been so worried about being too controlling, they went too far the other way and let her have too much freedom. So they stopped letting her come on missions and stuff."

He'd started getting sidetracked, he realized, so he tried to get back to the point. "So yeah, we figured out we just wanted to be friends then. But by that point, everyone was convinced we were childhood sweethearts, and we couldn't seem to find a way to stop them. In the end, it just seemed easier to let them think whatever they wanted."

"So…" Peridot mulled over that for a moment. "You don't want to tell the gems because they think you're already dating Connie. And what, they might be upset that you're not?"

"Well… yeah. But also because… I'm worried they'll sort of, kinda… spoil it." He reached over and clasped her hands. "I know it's selfish, but I just want you all to myself for a little longer without anybody making weird comments or assuming stuff about us and making it all uncomfortable, y'know? But you're right, they're gonna find out sooner or later." He let out a small laugh. "Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Garnet already knows." His expression turned serious again. "We'll tell them, I promise. Just let me clear up this misunderstanding about me and Connie first, OK?"

"OK," Peridot agreed.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

Later that evening, the happy couple were curled up together on Peridot's sofa, watching a movie, and actually watching it this time. Or at least, Steven was watching it, chuckling to himself as one poor character was hit in the head with a wrench. But when Peridot failed to react, he tore his eyes away from the screen and finally noticed her staring blankly at the screen, a thoughtful look on her face. "Peri? Is everything all right?"

"Hmm?" Peridot blinked and glanced up at him. "Yes, everything is fine. I was just thinking."

"Yeah? What about?" Steven asked cautiously. He hoped she wasn't still dwelling upon their conversation in the restaurant, because there really wasn't anything he could do about that until he had a chance to talk to the gems.

"I was wondering…" She shifted slightly in his arms. "…What's fusion like?"

"Fusion?" Steven looked surprised. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm just curious," she replied, but her quick glance over at her computer gave her away.

Of course, Steven realized. The encrypted report, plus Pearl's enthusiasm over Stevonnie had obviously put the subject of fusion into Peridot's mind. He thought for a moment, wondering how to explain it. A few years ago, he would've immediately gushed about how wonderful fusion was, but now he was a little older and a little wiser. "Well, I guess it depends on stuff. Like why you're doing it, and who you're doing it with. The first time I did it was with Connie and it was by accident, and Garnet said we weren't two people or one person, we were an experience. And we were friends and we just wanted to dance and have fun and it was pretty nice." _Until Kevin,_ he added internally. "Then with Amethyst, well, you saw that. It was an accident again, but we'd kinda reached an understanding about ourselves and what people were expecting from us, and it gave us the push we needed to help each other fight Jasper together."

"I… think I understand?" Peridot frowned. "So when Lapis and Jasper fused…"

"It was for bad reasons," Steven finished. "They didn't like each other and they had ulterior motives for fusing, so it was a bad experience for them."

Peridot tilted her head in confusion. "But Jasper wanted to do it again?"

Steven shrugged helplessly. "It's a rush," he admitted. "You share your partner's power and I guess if they're a lot more powerful than you, you miss it afterwards." He shivered, remembering how Pearl had tricked Garnet into fusing because she'd craved her power. "And Lapis was a _lot_ more powerful than Jasper."

Peridot thought about that for a while. "But your fusions have all been good experiences?"

"…Mostly," Steven admitted. "There's been a couple of times where it wasn't so good. But me and Connie and Amethyst got it all worked out quickly, so most of the time, it's been good, I've enjoyed it," he hastily added, sensing that he wasn't doing a very good job of selling fusion to her. "And hey, don't forget Garnet! She's fused for the best reason!"

Peridot's lips twitched upwards at that, but her smile quickly faded, to be replaced by a look of apprehension. "Does- does it hurt?" she asked in a small voice.

Somehow he knew she wasn't asking for herself, but for the fusion experiments she'd been sent to check up on, and he hastened to reassure her. "No, not at all." It was a little white lie, he knew perfectly well that there was plenty of emotional trauma in a bad fusion, not to mention what had happened to Jasper, but of course, she already knew that. "There's no physical pain. It might be a bit exhausting when you unfuse, but it doesn't hurt."

Peridot relaxed, looking reassured by that statement and Steven gave her a small, hopeful smile. "Do you want to try it sometime?" he offered. "Not right now, obviously," he quickly added as her eyes widened. "But y'know, sometime, just for funsies. I bet we'd make a _great_ fusion!"

"I don't know." She bit her lip. "I don't think I'm ready for that."

"I can wait," Steven said at once. "For as long as you need."

Peridot shook her head slowly. She was relieved to hear that it didn't hurt, but the idea of fusion still scared her. Lapis had always refused to talk about it, and she'd seen what it had done to Jasper. And Steven's powers were so much stronger than her own. What if she got addicted to the power of fusion too? Besides… "I don't even know if I _can_ ," she confessed. "I wasn't made for fusion."

"You weren't made for metal-bending either," Steven reminded her. "But even if it turns out you can't fuse with other gems, you might still be able to fuse with me. I can fuse with humans, after all, and they _definitely_ aren't made for fusion." Seeing that she still looked nervous, he backed off. "And if you can't, it doesn't matter. We don't need to fuse to have a relationship."

"We don't?" Peridot asked in surprise.

"Nope!" he smiled down at her. "My mom and dad couldn't fuse, but it wasn't as important as being able to talk to each other."

"We've definitely done _that_ then," she said with a small laugh, then stretched up and gave him a quick kiss.

They turned their attention back to the movie for a few minutes, and then Peridot spoke up again. "I suppose if you think about it, _you_ are technically the fusion of Greg and Rose."

"Mmm," Steven agreed. Then he actually properly thought about it, and groaned in disgust. "Oh. Ewwww! Why would you tell me to think about it!? That mental image is gonna haunt my dreams forever now!"

xxx

 _beep beep_

The sound of an incoming text dragged Steven out of his slumber and he rolled over and fumbled for his phone, dropping it on the floor twice before he was actually able to open the message from Connie.

 _Hi Steven! Back home now, fancy joining me 4 breakfast big donut? My treat :)_

His gaze flickered up to the time in the top corner - 7:56, which was a little earlier than he liked to be awake, but he and Peridot hadn't had a dream date after all, so getting up now wouldn't make him want to die, so he sent back a quick reply.

 _Sure, sounds good! See u soon!_

He hit send, and then grabbed some clothes and ran down the stairs to the bathroom to get washed and dressed. That done, he then crossed over to the door that led to Peridot's room. He knocked and waited, and a few seconds later, the lock clicked and she pushed the door open. "Goooood morning!" he sang cheerfully.

"You're up early," she commented, standing aside so that he could enter.

"Connie just texted me and asked if I wanted to meet her for breakfast at the Big Donut," he explained, stepping inside and closing the door again before pulling her into a quick hug. "You don't mind, do you?"

"Of course not," she said, looking mildly insulted that he'd even ask that. "Go! Have fun! I shall continue tinkering with my decryption algorithm while you're gone."

"Have you managed to decrypt anything else?" he asked with interest, looking over at the computer in the corner where code was scrolling across the screen, too fast for him to actually read any of it.

Peridot shook her head. "I did hope that they might have used the same encryption key for all the files, but they're all individually encrypted. There may be a pattern to it, but to be honest, I think I'm going to have to wait for a few more files to be decoded before I can really look into that."

Steven shook his head, giving up the pretence that he had the faintest idea what she was talking about. "You'll crack it," he reassured her. "I wish I could help, but the most technical thing I can manage on a computer is the Konami Code."

She grinned and stretched up on tiptoes to give him a quick kiss. "Your encouragement is all the help I need."

"Yeah?" He grinned back. "I could get you a motivational donut too if you like."

"A motivational donut would be nice," Peridot conceded and reluctantly let him go. "Go and have breakfast. I'll see you later."

"OK, love you, bye!" Steven gave her one last kiss and then set up on the short journey across the beach, towards the Big Donut. As he approached, he could see Connie loitering outside, and sped up his pace. "Hey, Connie!"

Connie straightened up and waved. "Steven!"

"Is the Big Donut not open yet?" he asked glancing over at the door. The store was supposed to open at 7am, but Mindy, the new employee hired to replace Sadie, was not always the most punctual person.

"No, it's open," Connie said cheerfully. "I just decided to wait outside. It's a nicer atmosphere." As she spoke, a seagull landed by her foot and raised its tail, releasing a stream of white poop onto the ground. Steven stared solemnly at her and she shrugged. "Still nicer."

"You don't have to convince me," he said with feeling. Mindy was also not the most welcoming person either. She made Lars look almost cheerful and efficient in comparison. Still, the Big Donut was the only place to get coffee and donuts, so Steven took a deep breath and pushed the door open. "Good morning, Mindy!" he greeted with faux cheer, strolling across the store and leaning against the counter. "And how are you on this bright and-"

"Shush." Without raising her eyes from her phone, Mindy held out a warning finger and Steven promptly shushed.

Thirty seconds passed in silence. Beside Steven, Connie's shoulders began to shake with mirth. After another ten seconds, Steven cleared his throat. Mindy ignored him. A small snort of laughter escaped from Connie, and a muscle in Mindy's cheek twitched. Finally she put down her phone and stared at them impatiently. "What?"

"Two coffees and two donuts please," Steven said quickly before she could shush him again.

"What donuts?"

Steven looked over at Connie and she stepped forward. "Powdered Lemon-" she began.

"We haven't got those," Mindy said flatly.

Connie gave the shelf marked 'Powdered Lemon' a pointed look. "Then what are those?"

Mindy leaned over, stabbed one of the donuts with a grubby finger, and licked it. "Powdered Blueberry. Do you want one?"

"Um, no thank you." Connie shuddered and pointed to the shelf marked 'Glazed Lemon' instead. "One of those is fine."

"Oh, that might be wrong too." Mindy reached out her finger again. "I'll just check-"

"NO! I-I mean, it's fine, I don't care what it is," Connie said hastily, and took the bagged donut out of Mindy's reach as soon as possible in case the girl decided to lick all the glaze off or something.

"And I'll just have that one," Steven added, pointing to something covered in crumbs that claimed to be New York Cheesecake, but could've been any sort of cookie combo, or possibly even a random donut that had been dropped on the floor. Then Mindy punched in the wrong code and overcharged them. It was a frequent error and Steven had given up arguing with her about it, but Connie was not about to let 75 cents go so easily, so Steven left her to it while he poured out the coffee, which was lukewarm and far too strong, but eventually they escaped and sat down on a bench outside to eat.

"She really is awful, isn't she?" Connie commented as she took a sip of her coffee. "I thought maybe I was remembering her wrong. Are you _quite_ sure she isn't a mole sent to sabotage the Big Donut?"

"I did suspect that too," Steven admitted, glancing down the Boardwalk towards A Pizza The Ocean, the restaurant that had replaced Fish Stew Pizza and was owned by Mindy's parents. "But she works at her parents place in the evenings and she's just as bad there." He raised his donut to his mouth and bit into it, then froze, a look of horror on his face.

"What? What is it?" Connie asked warily, lowering her own donut. "Did she drop something in the batter? Bottle cap? Used band-aid? Earring? Severed thumb?"

"No, it's just, I told Peridot I'd get her a motivational donut." He jumped to his feet. "I'll be right back."

"You're willingly going back there again?" Connie smirked. "Wow, it really _must_ be love." Steven poked his tongue out at her and she laughed. "You can give her this one if you like," she offered, holding the bag out. "Kinda lost my appetite now."

"You sure?" he asked, already reaching for the bag.

"Yeah, I made the mistake of actually imagining a severed thumb in it and now I'm scared to put it anywhere near my mouth," Connie admitted.

Completely undeterred, Steven sat back down and took another bite of his own donut. "I won't mention that to her."

Connie watched him eat for a few seconds, took a sip of her horrible coffee and decided she'd waited long enough. "So how _are_ things with you and Peridot? Everything going well?"

Steven smiled. "Yeah, it's going pretty good. We've been on a couple of dates now, it's been fun."

"Yeah? That's good." Connie looked up at the lighthouse that hid the Temple from view. "And what do the gems think about it all? Were they OK with you two?"

"Actually…" Steven blushed and ducked his head. "They kinda… we haven't exactly… I haven't told them yet."

Connie paused, her coffee cup raised halfway towards her mouth. "What? Why not?"

"They might, I dunno, think it's weird," Steven mumbled.

"So what, are you just gonna try and keep it a secret forever instead?" Connie lowered her cup and frowned. "That's not gonna work, Steven. You guys all live together, sooner or later one of them's going to find out, and they'll be more upset that you didn't tell them first."

Steven carried on staring at his feet. "I know, but… they um, they still think me and you…"

"Steven!" Connie wailed. "You _said_ you'd tell them! You _promised!_ "

"I am! I'm gonna tell them today!" he insisted. "And then I'm gonna give them a couple of days to process that before I tell them about me and Peridot, but I _am_ gonna do it! Really," he added, seeing from her expression that she didn't quite believe him. "Peridot got upset yesterday when I wanted to keep it quiet longer, I don't want her to think I'm messing her around."

Connie glowered at him. " _I_ asked you to tell them I wasn't your girlfriend four months ago," she said through gritted teeth.

"I know, I'm sorry." Steven rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. "I was kinda hoping while you were away, they might drop it, but Pearl at least still thinks we're a thing."

Connie sighed, her anger vanishing as quickly as it had flared up. She couldn't really blame him for ignoring the problem in the hope it would go away. It was a strategy she used on her college assignments, and unfortunately, was equally as effective. "You need to do this, Steven. I mean it, I'm not coming over your house until you do, I'm tired of all the hints about me giving up everything to become permafusion Stevonnie, full-time monster hunter."

"I know, I know, I'm sorry," Steven said again. "So um, what about you?" he asked, quickly changing the subject. "What happened with that guy in your Creative Writing class you had your eye on?"

"Oh, _him._ " Connie grimaced. "I asked him to coffee, and it was going so well, we were chatting about Harry Potter, and _then…_ " She paused for dramatic effect. "He said Harry and Hermione should've got together."

" _Oooooh_." Steven winced. "Movie fan?"

"Movie fan," she confirmed and took another sip of her coffee. "Also he said Hermione could only be a white girl, so yeah, that ended before it started."

"I'm sorry," Steven said sincerely.

"Oh, it's OK." She grinned widely. "I'm dating his sister now instead."


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

"Hey Stee-man," Amethyst greeted him from the sofa as soon as he walked in the door.

"Hi." He walked over to Peridot's door and knocked. "Your motivational donut," he said proudly when she opened the door.

"Wow, thanks."

"Absolutely no severed thumbs," he added as she took a bite out of it.

"How come _she_ gets a donut and I don't?" Amethyst complained as Peridot paused mid-chew and stared suspiciously down at her donut.

"Because she asked," Steven said simply.

At that moment, Pearl and Garnet stepped out of the Temple and smiled identical smiles at him. "Good morning, Steven," Garnet greeted.

"Are you hungry?" Pearl asked, taking a step towards the kitchen. "I could fix you some breakfast."

"Nah, he's fine," Amethyst said before Steven could answer. "He's just been on a breakfast date with Connie."

Normally Steven would've ignored this sort of comment, maybe rolled his eyes at most, but now, it was just the opening he needed. "It wasn't a date, OK?" he said firmly. "Connie and me are just friends, nothing more."

"Of course," Pearl said soothingly. "Nobody expects you to rush into anything, you're still young."

"I think Connie's still too young to actually get married anyway," Amethyst added. "How old is it for humans? Thirty? Of course, you don't have to married to have babies," she mused. "But maybe hold off on that one a little longer, yeah? We only just got used to _you._ "

Steven took a deep breath and tried not release it all in a scream of frustration as Pearl began openly contemplating whether they should've expanded the house to make room for Connie as well when they'd built Peridot's room. He wanted to give up and storm out, but he could feel Peridot's eyes on his back and knew she was watching, waiting to see how this would play out. "I'm serious, you guys!" he tried again. "Connie and I aren't dating. We're not a couple, and we never have been a couple, and we don't plan to become a couple in the future."

"Don't be ridiculous, Steven," Pearl said dismissively. "You two are perfect for each other."

This comment was so incredibly patronizing, Steven was momentarily stunned into silence. Then fury rose up within him and he opened his mouth to respond, but before he could do so, Peridot stepped forward and placed a warning hand on his arm. "Shouldn't Steven and Connie be the ones to make that decision?" she interjected, then flinched as Pearl and Amethyst both turned to glare at her. "I-I mean," she stammered, "isn't that one of the reasons you rebelled against Homeworld? So you could be in charge of your own lives?"

"Peridot's right." Garnet finally spoke up and stepped forward. "Maybe Steven and Connie will end up together and maybe they won't. But that's something they have to decide on their own." And with that, she turned around and walked back into the Temple.

There were several seconds of uncomfortable silence, and then Amethyst exhaled loudly. "Jeez, what _happened_ at this breakfast date? Did she dump you or something?"

"It wasn't-" Steven began, and gave up. "Yes. That's exactly what happened. We met for breakfast and she told me she's met someone else," he said, sending out a silent apology to Connie as he did so. He knew it wasn't really fair of him to throw her under the bus like this, but if it got Pearl and Amethyst to finally shut up about them dating, he was sure she'd understand. "But it's OK! I wasn't bothered about it, and that's um, that's when I realized I only liked her as a friend anyway. We had a long talk, and it's all cool now. But can we _please_ not talk about it any more, because it's making me uncomfortable."

Pearl and Amethyst exchanged quick glances. "Of course," Pearl finally said, stepping forward and giving him a small smile. "We didn't mean to upset you, and we'll leave you alone now if that's what you want."

Steven sagged with relief. "Thanks guys," he said, and began inching towards the warp pad. "Anyway, I gotta go now, me and Peridot have um, a thing we gotta do." And before anybody could ask what that thing was, including Peridot herself, he pulled her onto the warp pad and they vanished, reappearing a few seconds later in the strawberry battlefield. "Ugh! That was so frustrating!" he complained.

"I'm guessing there isn't actually a 'thing', is there?" Peridot asked.

"No, I just had to get out of there," he confessed. Then he pulled her in for a hug. "Thanks for sticking up for me back there."

"You're welcome," she said. "I had no idea they were that bad."

"They're usually not as bad as that." He released her and they began walking slowly through the strawberries, hand in hand. "I guess maybe it's because I don't tend to argue about it. I'll give them a couple of days for it to sink in before I tell them about us, is that OK?"

"That's fine," Peridot agreed.

As they walked together in companionable silence, her attention was caught by the sheer size of the strawberries, and she felt a pang of loss for her crops back at the barn. She'd been much less ambitious after that first harvest after discovering that she'd grown far too much food for Steven, Greg and Amethyst to ever eat, and that much of it had had to be given away, but she'd still enjoyed tending her garden. Nothing she'd ever grown had been as large as the strawberries though. She wondered if their unnatural size was something to do with the weapons that had been used in the battle here, or if gem fragments in the soil were responsible, and that reminded her of something she'd been meaning to talk to Steven about. "Steven? Can I ask you about bubbles?"

 _"Bubbles?"_ Steven repeated in surprise. "What about them?"

"When I bubbled my first gem, you told me that when I tapped the top, it would go 'home'," she began. "But how does it know where 'home' is? If I had tapped the bubble containing that Obsidian in the Kindergarten, where would the bubble have gone? And why do your bubbles all go to Garnet's room and not the beach house?"

"Uh… that's a good question actually, I guess I never really thought about it before," he admitted. "I suppose I just assumed they went 'home' because that's where I ended up when Garnet sent me-"

"Garnet sent you in a bubble!?" Peridot interrupted in amazement. "I thought you could only send gems-" She caught herself and laughed. "I suppose you _are_ a gem."

Steven laughed as well. "But yeah, you can send other stuff through bubbles. I sent a bag of chaaaps through once."

"So why don't you send more stuff through bubbles?" she questioned. "Why didn't we do that with mine and Lapis's belongings when the barn fell down?"

"I don't know." He shrugged. "I guess it just didn't occur to us. Why do you ask?"

"I've been thinking about the Cluster," she began slowly. "Garnet said Yellow Diamond's eventually going to wonder why it hasn't emerged, and she'll probably come here to check on it. It was so close to taking form, if she manages to unbubble it, that's it. The Earth will be destroyed. If we could just get it _out_ , even if she manages to defeat us all, at least the Earth will still have a chance. But it might be too large to really fit in Garnet's room, so I was wondering if it would be possible to send it somewhere else."

"Ahh, I see." Steven nodded in understanding. "Well like I said, I just assumed they went 'home' because that's where I ended up, but you're right, my bubbles should be winding up in my room then, not Garnet's, so maybe I can change where they go."

"Try it now!" Peridot urged. She looked around quickly and then bent down and picked up a small strawberry roughly the size of a basketball. "See if you can send this… over there, by that sword."

Steven obediently took the strawberry and bubbled it, and stared hard at the large sword stuck in the ground a few meters away. He pictured the bubble floating above it, took a deep breath and tapped the top of the bubble.

It vanished. The two young gems leaned forward hopefully, their sights fixed intently on the sword, but it was quickly apparent that it wasn't going to reappear there. "It didn't work," Steven said with disappointment. "Now what?"

Peridot gave him a comforting pat on the shoulder. "Try again," she encouraged him. "You can't expect results immediately."

Steven pouted. He had actually expected to get results immediately; as he'd gotten better control of his gem powers, he'd found himself mastering new skills almost as quickly as he discovered them. But he knew Peridot was right, so he picked up another strawberry and bubbled it. Once again it vanished and failed to reappear. "Gah!"

Peridot couldn't helping laughing at his expression of confused frustration. "You can do it, I believe in you!" She stepped forward and embraced him from behind. "And when you do, I'll give you a kiss," she teased. "Deal?"

"Deal," Steven agreed at once. And duly motivated, he bubbled another strawberry and tapped the top. Several seconds passed. The bubble didn't reappear. "Oh for fuh- one more time!"

"You can do it, Steven," Peridot said softly.

He took a deep breath and bubbled yet another strawberry. _Concentrate, Steven!_ he told himself sternly. For years he'd been assuming bubbles went 'home', but Peridot was right, Garnet's room wasn't home. There was no specific reason why his bubbles should go there other than his own belief that that was where they should go. Which meant there was also no reason why they shouldn't go any other place he wanted. Like, for example, just above that sword. He stared at the spot and tapped the top of the bubble. It blipped out of existence… and almost immediately reappeared just a short distance away, exactly where he'd wanted it to. He let out a gleeful laugh and flailed his arms. "Ha! I did it!"

"You did it!" Peridot shrieked too, and flung her arms around his neck. "Oh my gosh, Steven, do you know what this means!?"

"It means you owe me a kiss," he said with grin.

Peridot happily obliged, and then pulled away. "But it also means you can extract the Cluster! Yellow Diamond won't be able to use them to destroy the Earth!"

"Maybe once they're out, we could even unbubble them," Steven said thoughtfully. "You know, they were mostly made of shattered Crystal Gems, they'd probably be on our side."

"Hmm, you're right." Peridot gazed at the bubble for a moment. "You should keep practicing," she said abruptly. "With bigger strawberries. The Cluster is a lot larger that that one."

"All right." He walked over to a much larger strawberry and bubbled it. "But I'm going to need lots more kisses if I manage to move this one."

xxx

For the next few hours, they bubbled strawberries, ancient weapons and in Steven's case, some of the floating islands, sending them back and forth across the battlefield with the occasional make-out break to keep themselves motivated. "I'll begin work on another drill in the morning," Peridot was saying as Steven concentrated upon bubbling another one of the floating islands. "I kept all the plans from last time, so work should proceed much more quickly-"

As Steven reached out to tap the bubble, his phone suddenly chimed in his pocket and made him jump. "Oops," he muttered as the island vanished. "Dunno where _that_ went."

"What happened?" Peridot asked as he floated down and landed beside her.

"I got distracted by my phone," he admitted as he tapped the screen. Then he frowned and passed the phone over to her to read. "It's from Connie. She says she has to talk to me urgently."

Peridot skimmed the message and frowned too. "You don't think…?"

"That Pearl and Amethyst went to see if they could convince her to take me back?" He pulled a face and shoved the phone back into his pocket. "Yeah, I do. Shit. I'd better go and find out what's going on."

"While you're doing that, I'll talk to Garnet about building another drill," Peridot said as she followed him back towards the warp pad.

"OK. Oh, and can you apologize to her about the strawberries and stuff in her room? I'll send it all back here later."

Peridot nodded and the two of them stepped onto the warp pad and appeared moments later in the beach house. Steven immediately dashed towards the door. "I'll see you later, bye!"

"Bye! And good luck!" Peridot called after him. She watched as the door slammed shut behind him, and turned towards the Temple door, troubled. She hoped it was just a false alarm and that Connie wanted to speak to Steven about something completely different, but deep down, she knew that it was unlikely to be such a coincidence, and she really didn't like the idea of Pearl and Amethyst meddling. The sooner they accepted the situation, the better.

She approached the door, but as she raised her hand to knock, the door slid open and she jumped backwards with a small squeak of surprise. For a fleeting moment, she thought it was Garnet's future vision at work, but it was Pearl who stepped out into the house, not their leader. "Has he gone?" the elder gem asked in a hushed whisper, her eyes darting around in search of her foster son.

Peridot narrowed her eyes and nodded slowly. It hadn't escaped her attention that Pearl hadn't asked _where_ Steven had gone. "Yes. Why? What have you done?"

Pearl ignored her question and skipped over to the window, peering outside to see if Steven was still in sight. "How was he?" she asked instead. "Was he terribly upset?"

"No. He was fine," Peridot said flatly.

Pearl sighed and briefly closed her eyes as she clutched her hands to her chest. "I see. Putting on a brave face. My poor, poor baby."

Peridot valiantly resisted the urge to roll her eyes at this show of dramatics. "He really was completely fine," she said instead.

"Oh, Peridot. You just don't understand how it feels to have your heart broken." Tears glistened in the corners of Pearl's eyes. "To have to hide your hurt behind a smile and carry on through the pain."

Peridot was beginning to understand now why Steven had given up and let them carry on believing he and Connie were dating for so long. Still, she opened her mouth to protest a third time, but before she could, Pearl spoke again. "But fortunately for Steven, he has us on his side."

Once again, Peridot opened her mouth, this time to state that if Pearl was _really_ on Steven's side, she'd step back and let him deal with his love life on his own, but then she stopped herself. Something had clearly happened while she and Steven had been gone, and her chances of finding out exactly what that was would be better if she let Pearl talk. "Right, us," she said carefully. "Is that… all of us?"

"Well, Garnet refused to help," Pearl admitted.

"I see. So… what's the plan? Where's Amethyst?" Peridot glanced over at the Temple door, hoping she was still in her room and not following Steven to his meeting, because if Pearl wasn't around to squash some of the other gem's more impulsive behavior, there was a very strong chance that Steven and Connie were about to be handcuffed together. "Connie sent Steven a message, asking him to meet her, am I correct in assuming that was something to do with you two?"

"Oh, yes," Pearl said proudly. "We thought if we could just get them to talk, Connie would see reason."

"So you asked her to meet him?" Peridot checked.

Pearl scoffed. "No, of course not, She might have refused. No, we simply went onto the internet and sent them each a message from the others cell phone number, asking them to meet urgently."

Peridot bit her mouth, struggling to hold back the incredulous laughter that rose up within her. It was nice to learn that Pearl and Amethyst hadn't browbeaten Connie into meeting with Steven, but what did they think was going to happen? That Connie would take one more look at him and suddenly change her mind? Actually, she realized, that was probably exactly what they expected to happen. In which case, the best thing to do was absolutely nothing, just stand back and let Amethyst and Pearl watch as Connie and Steven rejected each other.

So as Pearl began walking towards the doorway, explaining that Amethyst was expecting them and that she'd only stayed at the house to make sure Steven actually went to meet Connie, Peridot smiled, nodded and followed silently behind her.


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

Lion had been nowhere in sight when Steven left the house, so he set off on foot, at a pace that no normal human would've ever been able to emulate and so it was only a few short minutes later that he reached the top of Brooding Hill and began heading into the trees. His mind was full of unlikely-but-dire possibilities - Amethyst shapeshifted as him, trying to seduce Connie, Pearl holding her at swordpoint, Opal sat on the Maheswaran's roof, refusing to move until she took him back - and so he failed to notice the flickering lights of hundreds of bubbled candles until he burst out of the trees and into a clearing and almost tripped over a picnic basket. "What the-?"

There was a rustling noise from the other side of the clearing and Connie stepped forward, looking concerned. "Steven? What's wrong- what's all this?" she asked in confusion, looking around at the candles floating in the trees and the basket, set beside a pretty blue and white checkered rug and surrounded by cut roses. "Why did you ask me to come here?"

"I didn't." Steven was equally confused. "You asked _me._ "

Connie took another look around and her expression changed to one of grim annoyance. "Oh. I think I get it. Let me guess, you told the gems about us? Or rather, that there is no us?"

Steven looked blankly at her for a second and then the penny dropped. "We've been tricked!" he gasped.

"Yeah." Connie shook her head and turned away. "Ugh. I'm going ho-"

She halted abruptly as the sound of music began to float through the trees towards them. The sky above darkened as clouds formed above them, and then morphed into heart shapes. There was a flicker of movement to the side of them and Steven briefly spotted Amethyst, shapeshifted into the form of a bird as she flew into a tree and perched there, a cell phone held firmly in her beak, and he fought back the urge to laugh. The situation may have been ridiculous, but it was no laughing matter.

"What do they think this is, The Little Mermaid!?" Connie hissed under her breath as Pearl's voice began to sing along to the music that Steven now realized was coming from the phone in Amethyst's mouth. "Where's a barracuda when you need one?"

Steven did laugh at that, and quickly clapped a hand over his mouth as Connie glared at him. "Sorry. I'll go and talk to them."

He walked up to the base of the tree where Amethyst was perched and folded his arms sternly, glaring up at her. "Knock it off, guys. It's not gonna happen."

"Caw caw," Amethyst replied, trying to look innocent. "Caw- ah shit." Steven stepped aside and the phone bounced off the ground where his foot had been just a moment ago. The music stopped at once and a moment later, Pearl's voice faltered to a halt. "Sorry," Amethyst called down to him. "Lost my grip."

"You've lost your _minds,_ " Steven corrected. "I told you, Connie and I aren't interested in each other, a nice song and hearts in the sky aren't gonna change that."

Behind the trees, just out of sight, Pearl sighed in disappointment. "I suppose we'll just have to move on to Plan B," she murmured.

Peridot looked sharply at her. "Plan B? What's Plan B? You never said anything about a Plan B!"

Pearl ignored her and met Amethyst's eyes. Some unspoken signal passed between them, and Amethyst sighed dramatically and stretched her wings. "All right, fine," she said loudly. "We'll clean this up and leave you alone. I'll just pop those bubbled candles, OK?"

Before Steven could stop her, she flew forward and stabbed a bubble with her sharp beak, and he had to lunge forward to catch the flickering candle before it landed on the rug and started a fire. He snuffed it out and turned just in time to see three more candles drop out of the air. "Slow down!" he wailed, trying to catch them all at once and almost crashing into Connie, who'd had the same idea.

Amethyst glanced down at them, making sure they were both close to one another, and then darted to another bubble before flying up into the trees again, out of range. Once again, Steven and Connie stepped forward to catch whatever had been inside the bubble, but then they stumbled to a halt, confused, because it didn't fall to the ground like the candles did. Instead, it hung in the air for a moment, and then began to glow, and the two teens froze in horror as they began to understand exactly what Amethyst had just unleashed.

Hidden in the trees, Peridot froze as well and if it hadn't been for the other glow of light in the corner of her eye, things might have gone very differently. But that glow caught her attention and she turned just in time to see Pearl withdraw Rose Quartz's sword from her gem. She didn't stop to wonder why Pearl had the sword or what the hell she was doing with it; almost before it had fully emerged, she grabbed it and ran forward, ignoring the shriek of rage behind her. It was heavier than she'd expected and when she threw it, it didn't go very far, but that was OK, she just needed to get it airborne for a second. Her metal powers would do the rest.

xxx

 _Jasper!_

Steven could only stare as the enormous, warped form took shape in front of him. Strangely enough, as soon as he recognized the gem, the horror vanished to be replaced with an unexpected flare of hope. It had been four years, after all, and he looked rather different than the last time. Maybe now she'd let him help.

He took a step forward and raised his hand towards her, even as Connie let out a low moan and tried to pull him away. "Steven, we have to get out of here!"

"I can help her," he breathed, almost hypnotized.

"No you can't!" Connie said harshly, pulling at him again. "She won't let you, she _hates_ you!"

Steven ignored her and took another step forward, staring up at the horns where her eyes had once been. A long time ago, he'd believed corrupted gems were nothing more than mindless monsters, but he knew differently now. He'd _seen_ it with Centipeedle. Somewhere inside there was the old Jasper, and if they just let him _try,_ he could bring her back.

And then Jasper looked down at him, and even without eyes, he saw recognition cross her face and suddenly understood that Connie was right. He completely forgot about his shield and stumbled backwards, blood pounding in his ears and almost drowning out the sound of Connie's screams as Jasper lifted a giant, shaggy paw, but before she could bring it down and tear his head off, his mother's sword flew through the air and slammed into her chest. She poofed at once, and the orange gem fell to the ground.

"Quick, quick, bubble her and send her away!" Connie begged, a note of hysteria creeping into her voice.

Steven, dimly aware of some sort of commotion taking place in the trees behind him, snatched up Jasper's gem and sent it away just as Pearl and Peridot burst into the clearing. "What did you do that for!?" Pearl was berating Peridot. "They were so close!"

"Close to what, dying!?" Peridot snapped back. "Are you cracked!?"

Pearl waved a hand dismissively. "They would've been fine, they've beaten Jasper before."

 _No, we haven't,_ Steven thought to himself as Amethyst flew down to join in the argument. _**Stevonnie**_ _beat Jasper._ He glanced at Connie and saw that she'd come to the same conclusion. "Guys, this is insane!" he protested, but his words were lost in the noise.

It was Connie who got their attention, by raising her fingers to her lips and letting out a piercing whistle. The gems stopped squabbling at once and turned to look at her. "Excuse me, but did you guys seriously just throw _Jasper_ at us to try and manipulate us into fusing?" she asked coldly, her eyes glittering with icy anger.

Amethyst at least had the grace to look ashamed of herself, but Pearl simply shook her head in earnest. "It wasn't like that," she protested. "I know the two of you had problems the last time you tried to form Stevonnie, and we just thought if we gave you the proper motivation, we could remind you of how well you and Steven worked together."

"And what if it didn't work?" Connie asked. "Were you just going to sit back and let me die so that Steven would have to use his tears to bring me back as a magic zombie like Lars?" Now the glitter in her eyes was recognizable as unshed tears. "You know why we couldn't form Stevonnie before? Because I didn't _want_ to! I want to be me! I'm a human being, and that doesn't make me _lesser_!"

"Connie…" Steven said uneasily, and tried to place a comforting hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged it off.

"Of course you're not… lesser," Pearl quickly interjected. "You're one of the most promising humans I've ever met," she added, clearly intending for that statement to be more reassuring than it was. "I just don't understand why you would want to waste your potential on some other human when you could have Steven!" She gestured proudly towards him, totally unaware of how much he wanted to sink into the ground at that moment. "He's perfect!"

"Perfect!?" Connie laughed harshly. "Why would I want a 'perfect' boyfriend? How am I supposed to measure up to _that_?" She swiped a hand across her face, brushing away hot, angry tears. "Yeah, maybe Alice isn't perfect. She's messy, she's kinda bossy, and she's never on time for anything. But I'm not perfect either! And when I'm with her, I never feel like that's a bad thing!"

Steven squirmed miserably. He knew he wasn't really perfect, and he knew Connie didn't actually think he was either… but he did make her feel inadequate. She'd never quite recovered from those early training sessions with Pearl, and in the end, she'd decided the best way to deal with her feelings was to take a step back from all the magic stuff and embrace her humanity. And apparently, this Alice person as well.

Seeing that Pearl was opening her mouth to speak again, he stepped forward between her and Connie. "That's enough. If Connie's girlfriend makes her happy, that's good, right?"

"But what about _you_?" Pearl asked, looking deeply concerned. "I mean," she added hastily, "of course I want Connie to be happy, but I want you to be happy too, with the person you love."

His eyes flickered over to Peridot, stood beside Amethyst. She met his gaze and smiled a tiny smile at him, and he felt a rush of love for her. "I am."

"Wait, what?" Amethyst blurted out. "Who? There's nobody else _in_ this Podunk town-" Her mouth fell open in horror. " _Not_ the gross donut girl!?"

Steven laughed. "No, not the gross donut girl." He stepped forward and took both of Peridot's hands in his own, and smiled down at her. "Definitely not the gross donut girl."

Now Pearl's mouth fell open too and for several seconds, she was too stunned to speak. The same was not true for Amethyst, who ran through several other options ("can't be the pizza chicks, they both left, same with old donut girl- wait, is it a _guy_? Fry guy? Other fry guy?") before the penny finally dropped. "Holy shit, _Peridot_!?"

"Peridot," Steven confirmed, not taking his eyes off of his girlfriend. He opened his mouth to apologize for not telling them sooner, but it was at that moment that Pearl snapped out of her stupor.

" _Peridot!?_ " she repeated shrilly. "But she's a _Homeworld_ gem!"

The smile slid off Peridot's face at once. "Um, _Crystal_ gem, thank you very-"

"How long has this been going on for?" Pearl demanded loudly.

"Um… about two weeks…?" Steven replied. A vague feeling of unease began to creep over him. "We- _Peridot_ wanted to tell you all sooner-"

"Oh, I see!" Pearl laughed a dry, humorless laugh. "I suppose that explains why her bedroom door was always locked, so that she could seduce you under our noses without getting caught!"

Steven and Peridot exchanged glances. "It wasn't like that-" Peridot began, but Pearl once again spoke over her.

"Steven, think about this. Your mother wanted you to have a normal life-"

Amethyst snorted loudly and quickly covered it up with a cough as Pearl looked sharply at her. Still, the message was clear, and she quickly changed tack. "Yellow Diamond is coming for her Cluster. We don't know when, but she's coming, and Peridot has no powers. How is she supposed to protect you?"

Peridot glanced down at the sword that still lay on the grass. "I managed just fine a few minutes ago," she muttered under her breath.

Either Pearl didn't hear that, or she chose to ignore it as she carried on talking. "She can't fight, she can't even _fuse!_ "

"Neither can Greg," Peridot said tartly. "But that didn't seem to bother Rose Quartz."

There was a sharp _CRACK_ as Pearl slapped her across the cheek. Peridot's head snapped to one side and when she slowly turned back and locked eyes with Pearl, a small trickle of blood ran from the corner of her mouth. Steven flung himself in front of her, shield at the ready, and she was dimly aware that somewhere behind her, Amethyst was yelling, but she kept her eyes fixed upon the other gem until finally, Pearl looked away. For a moment, she looked like she was about to speak, but then, without a further word, she spun around and sprung away into the forest.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

Steven dismissed his shield and spun around to face his girlfriend. "Peridot! Are you OK!?"

Peridot opened her mouth to reassure him she was fine, and promptly burst into tears. It wasn't the slap that hurt; Steven himself had hit her harder when he'd mistaken her for a construct made by his mothers room, and his healing kisses were already taking care of her split lip. No, what hurt was the way Pearl had spoken about her. She'd had stars on her default uniform for several years now, one purple, because color theory said that it was the opposite of yellow and one pink, because it was Rose Quartz's color, but she was well aware that even with the stars, the Crystal Gems still didn't really see her as one of them, and she'd cheerfully assumed that was just because she'd been living in the barn for so long. Now she was living with them in the beach house, surely that would change! The thought that they might still see her as a _Homeworld_ gem had never crossed her mind. After all, they had all watched her turn on Yellow Diamond when she'd refused to spare the Earth. They'd trusted her to help Steven fight the Cluster. They'd even left her to defend Beach City in their absence. After all that, for Pearl to call her a Homeworld gem... that hurt more than any physical blow.

Off to one side, Amethyst shuffled awkwardly and averted her eyes. "Um, I'm just gonna... I'll go and talk to her," she mumbled, edging back towards the trees.

"Uh-huh," Steven said distractedly as he stroked Peridot's hair and made comforting noises. Amethyst immediately vanished, but he barely noticed. He was too busy fighting down a rising tidal wave of panic. He'd expected the gems to raise _some_ objections, it was one of the reasons he hadn't wanted to tell them so soon, but he'd naively assumed that the worst thing they'd do was ask that they keep the door to Peridot's room open. He'd been completely unprepared for Pearl's reaction, even before she'd hit Peridot. How could he be sure Garnet wouldn't react badly too? And Amethyst hadn't said much, but maybe once the shock wore off, she'd side with Pearl. He really couldn't be sure any more.

Peridot's tears were slowing down now, and she stepped out of his embrace and wiped her eyes. "Sorry. I'm fine now," she lied.

"I know you're not really." He sighed and looked around the clearing. Connie was walking around, popping the bubbled candles, presumably because she had no idea what to do now. And neither did he.

As if she'd read his mind, Peridot looked up at him with worry. "What do we do now?" she asked in a small voice.

Steven shrugged helplessly. "Help Connie tidy up, I guess." It wasn't exactly the most reassuring statement he could've made, so he forced a smile onto his face and gave her hands a quick squeeze. "Don't worry, I'll figure something out."

xxx

"Pearl! Wait up!" Amethyst sprinted through the trees, ducking and dodging branches and bushes, trying to catch up to her team mate, but Pearl maddeningly managed to stay ahead of her. After crashing straight through a tree that had taken her completely by surprise, Amethyst gave up shouting at her and shapeshifted back into a bird and flew up above the canopy, keeping Pearl in her sights. When the other gem emerged from the forest and began heading back through the town, towards the beach house, Amethyst landed and started running again and finally caught up to her just as she pushed the front door open. "Pearl! Jeez, slow down a little!"

Pearl ignored her and stomped inside, coming to a halt in front of Garnet, who was sat on the sofa, reading a book. Garnet glanced up at her and smiled sweetly. "How did it go?"

"Did you know about this?" Pearl demanded.

"Know about what?" Garnet asked mildly. Pearl glared at her until Garnet sighed and put her book aside. "Let me guess. Steven and Peridot?"

"So you _did_ know?" Pearl spat.

"I suspected," Garnet corrected her. "But I wasn't sure until now."

"Oh really!" Pearl scoffed. "You expect me to believe that!?"

"Yes, because it's true." Garnet adjusted her shades. "I try not to look at the future of Steven's love life. He deserves his privacy."

"Well, he's been getting plenty of that in her room!" Pearl spun around and jabbed a pointy finger in the direction of Peridot's room. "Right under our noses!"

"It's not exactly under our noses if it's in private, is it?" Garnet said cheerfully.

Pearl stamped her foot in frustration. "Why won't you take this seriously!? You can't really be OK with this, are you!?"

Garnet shrugged. "Yes? Should I not be?"

Amethyst, who'd been quietly watching the argument, finally spoke up. "It's a little weird, I guess, I really thought him and Connie were a thing, but I suppose I can kinda understand it? Steven's always been nice to Peridot. I mean, if it wasn't for him, she'd still be in a bubble. Actually, she'd be dead," she corrected. "We all would."

"Of course she likes _him,_ " Pearl said dismissively. "But I have no idea what he see's in _her._ She's... she's from _Homeworld!_ "

Amethyst rolled her eyes at this. "So are you. Duh."

"Maybe so, but I pledged my loyalty to Earth long ago," Pearl shot back. "Besides, she's an inferior gem, she's a liability!" she continued before Garnet or Amethyst could argue with that statement. "Yellow Diamond's coming, you keep telling us that. And Peridot's powers are so weak, Steven's probably going to get himself killed trying to protect her!" At this horrifying thought, Pearl began to cry.

"You mean, instead of the other way around?" Amethyst said sarcastically. "You know what I think? You're just jealous. I'm not saying you want Steven for yourself or anything," she added as Pearl's jaw dropped in outrage. "I'm saying you did everything you could for Rose; you learned to fight, you gave up your home planet, and you took up a cause you don't really believe in because _she_ believed in it. You threw yourself into danger for her hundreds of times and you would've died for her. And it wasn't enough. She fell in love with Greg and had a baby with him and left you to take care of him because she knew you would. And he's all you've got left of Rose, so you want the very best for him, but you _also_ kinda want him to end up with someone who's as slavishly devoted to him as you were to Rose because then it'll be like you won, like you didn't waste all those thousands of years for nothing."

"How- how _dare_ you-" Pearl spluttered.

"-So you groomed Connie because you could see how much she was dazzled by like, all this gem stuff, and it reminded you of how much Rose used to dazzle you too," Amethyst carried on relentlessly. "But that didn't work, and Peridot's in love with him instead. And you don't think she really _deserves_ him because yeah, she probably won't go and needlessly sacrifice herself for him, but he loves her anyway, the way Rose didn't love you and that just _kills_ you!"

Pearl stepped forward, her face a mask of fury, and Garnet tensed, ready to separate the two if necessary. Catching sight of the small movement, Pearl paused and took a moment to regain her composure. "This has nothing to do with Rose," she said coldly. " _Nothing._ " And then she spun around and stalked off to the warp pad and vanished.

Amethyst glared after her for a moment and then slumped back onto the sofa next to Garnet. "Urghhhhh." She stared up at the ceiling for several seconds and then finally turned to look at Garnet. "Did I just make things worse?"

Garnet shrugged. "Probably not."

"That's not exactly reassuring," Amethyst grumbled. She stared at the ceiling for a little longer. "I can't believe you just let me _say_ all that stuff. Why didn't you stop me!?"

"Well, partly because you're not wrong," Garnet admitted. "Pearl has an unhealthy fixation with Rose that still affects her relationships with everyone else around her. I _had_ hoped she'd gotten better after that trip to Empire City," she added under her breath. "But mostly because I'm mad at you both."

"You are?" Amethyst looked doubtfully at the other gem's placid face. Garnet didn't _look_ particularly angry, but them she rarely did.

"I am," Garnet said calmly, and then turned and looked up in the direction of Steven's room. "Furious, in fact."

Amethyst followed her gaze and finally spotted the bubble hovering over Steven's bed. "Oh. That." She gulped and then smiled hopefully. "Would it help if I said it was all Pearl's idea and I only wanted to help because I really thought Steven was heartbroken?"

"Hmm." Garnet considered that for a moment. "In that case, I suppose I do feel better about not sitting back and letting her punch you in the face."

"Thanks, I guess."

They sat in silence for several seconds, and then Amethyst spoke again. "So what do we do now?"

"Watch the Game Of Thrones finale while we wait for Pearl to calm down?" Garnet suggested, picking up the remote.

"It's not Pearl I'm worried about," Amethyst mumbled, but the show was starting and Garnet was reading her book again, so she shrugged and turned her attention to the TV. After all, Garnet was the leader. It was her problem now.

xxx

The three youngsters worked slowly, popping bubbles and packing away the picnic, taking their time and putting off the moment when they would have to figure out what to do next. But eventually the last candle was snuffed out and shut away in the basket and Connie picked it up and handed it over to Steven. "Here. You should probably take this. And this," she added, offering him Rose Quartz's sword.

"Thanks." Steven took them from her and made a mental note to put the sword in Lion's mane when he had the chance.

"So..." Connie shifted from foot to foot. "Do you two want a ride back into town? Or... somewhere?"

"Um..." Steven glanced over at Peridot, but she kept her gaze fixed firmly on the grass. "Thanks, but I think we'll walk back."

"OK." Connie took a few paces towards the edge of the clearing and paused. "Call me if you need anything, OK?"

As soon as she'd gone, Steven turned to his girlfriend. "OK..." he began hesitantly. "I was thinking-"

"So was I," Peridot interrupted. "It's me Pearl's angry with, not you, so I'm going to-"

"You're not moving into the Kindergarten," Steven said at once.

"But-"

"No buts!" Steven said sternly. "What kind of boyfriend would I be if I just left you in that place by yourself?"

"But it's my fault !" Peridot protested. "I was the one who wanted to tell them, I was the one who antagonized Pearl-"

"No, you were right." Steven shook his head. "You and Connie were both right, we wouldn't have been able to keep it a secret forever and Pearl would've been even angrier if we'd left it longer. We'll give her some space to cool off and go stay at my dad's for a little while, OK?"

Peridot bit her lip and then nodded slowly. "But Steven... what if Greg gets angry too?" she asked in a small voice.

"If he does, before we steal his credit card and run away to Empire City, I'll make sure to point out what a massive hypocrite he is," Steven said with a grin.

That made Peridot smile, and they started walking hand-in-hand back down the hill towards Beach City. But Steven couldn't quite shake off the worry that his father might not be as supportive as he hoped, and as they approached the car wash, he let go of Peridot's hand. "Um, maybe I should talk to him alone first."

Peridot, who had no desire to be hit again, readily agreed and so he left her at the edge of the lot and approached the van parked on the forecourt and knocked on the back door. "Dad? Are you in there?"

There was no answer, and he was almost relieved by that. Except they still needed a place to stay and there was no way they could go back to the house just yet, so he tried one more time. "Da-ad, where are you?"

There was still no response. Steven took a step back and sighed. He didn't _really_ want to run away to Empire City, but it was beginning to look like the best option with every passing moment. He turned away, already planning their life there (they'd rent a cheap apartment in a bad part of town and he'd get a job in a coffee shop because it was the only sort of job he'd actually had experience with, and in the evenings he'd do underground wrestling for money, and Peridot would extra money doing online tech support and fashion blogging and they'd be poor and struggling but that would be OK because they'd always have each other) when he heard a shout from behind him.

"Steven! Hey, kiddo!" Greg waved from the doorway of the car wash office and jogged forward. "Sorry, the last customer had a fight with a muddy ditch and lost. Sandals were probably not my wisest choice of footwear," he added ruefully. "Had to do some serious clean-up. So what brings you over to this part of town today?"

"Uhh..." Steven quickly glanced around the lot. There were no customers around now, but still, he didn't like the idea of doing this out in the open, where anybody might suddenly show up. "Can we talk someplace private?"

Greg looked at his son's unusually serious expression and frowned with concern. "Sure. Come on inside and I'll close up for a bit."

He walked back into the building and waited for Steven to follow him inside before flipping the sign over to 'closed' and then locked the door for good measure. There was a kitchen in the back, and he busied himself for a few minutes, filling the coffee machine and grabbing a packet of cookies, because this looked like it might be one of those situations that called for cookies. "All right, he said few minutes later, handing Steven a mug of coffee. "Shoot."

Steven had decided that the best course of action now was to be as straightforward as possible, so he gripped his mug, taking comfort from the heat, and took a deep breath. "I'm in love." He paused for a moment. "With Peridot. We're dating."

"Oh!" Greg blinked, startled. "That's-" He paused, suddenly recalling the morning two weeks ago, when Steven had turned his room upside down, looking for something different to wear. It had been shortly after Peridot moved into the beach house and turned Steven's sleep schedule upside down, and now Greg was beginning to understand why. "Actually less surprising than I thought it would be," he finished slowly. "But I thought you and Connie...?"

"We're just friends. We've always been just friends." Steven sighed glumly. "But nobody ever listened to us when we said that, so we gave up arguing."

Greg squirmed slightly at this statement, knowing he was guilty of calling missions with Connie 'dates' on at least three separate occasions. "Sorry."

"It's OK." Steven gave him a small smile. "It wasn't just you. And I know I didn't really try very hard to set things straight, it was always just easier to let everyone think what they wanted."

"Mmm." Greg quickly changed the subject. "So, you and Peridot! Wow! Have you told the gems yet?"

"Uuuuugh." Steven groaned and massaged his temples.

"Oh. That good then?"

Steven laughed bitterly "Where do I even begin?"


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

Pearl walked through the strawberry battlefield, completely unaware that a few hours earlier, two of the people currently occupying her thoughts had been right there too. Usually when she walked these fields, her mind would be full of memories of ancient battles fought at Rose's side. But now, all she could think of was Amethyst's ridiculous accusation.

 _Jealous!_ She hadn't been so insulted in years! Her disapproval of this so-called relationship between Steven and Peridot had absolutely nothing to do with Rose. The only connection that could possibly be made was that Rose had trusted her friends to help raise Steven with his best interests in mind, and Peridot simply wasn't good enough for him. If she were quite honest, she didn't think Connie was good enough for him either, no human would've ever been good enough, but Pearl had understood that the options were limited. But Connie had been prepared to work hard to make herself into a suitable partner for Steven, and Pearl had been impressed with the progress she'd been making (for a human)... and now all of that hard work was for nothing. Connie had taken up a human partner, which Pearl found completely baffling. Why didn't she want Steven? He was amazing!

She was suddenly reminded of something that had happened shortly after she and Rose had found Garnet on Earth. Rose had been fascinated by the fusion and wanted to try fusing with them too, but Garnet hadn't wanted to. Pearl hadn't been able to understand why Garnet hadn't leapt at the opportunity to fuse with someone as amazing as Rose- but this had nothing to do with Rose, she reminded herself. This was about Peridot not being good enough for Steven. She'd only been on Earth four years, that was barely any time at all for a gem to really change. She might be on their side now, but who's to say she wouldn't alter her allegiance if Yellow Diamond showed up and offered her amnesty and a new set of limb enhancers? After all, she'd only joined _them_ in the first place to avoid being killed by the Cluster. It wasn't really the most compelling argument for letting her become a Crystal Gem.

Although... she had to admit, the little green gem seemed to be very enthusiastic about their cause, far more so than Lapis Lazuli, who had last been heard of in some place called Six Mile Bottom, and as always, when Pearl thought about Lapis's quest to visit places with rude names, her lip curled with derision. The surly blue gem had always made it clear that the only thing keeping _her_ on Earth was Steven and the unhappy knowledge that Homeworld would not welcome her back with open arms. And Lapis hated the threat of being imprisoned again far more than she hated Earth and the Crystal Gems. Peridot, on the other hand, had apparently accepted her fate (once the shock of turning on her Diamond had worn off, of course) and taken it upon herself to learn as much about her new home as quickly as possible. Of course, it would be a long time before she would really understand Earth, Pearl had been here for thousands of years and it still confused her.

For one brief, shining moment, she had a glimmer of self-awareness. Peridot had sought out information about Earth right from the start, reading books, watching television and carrying out her own observations and experiments. She had borrowed textbooks from Connie and listened attentively to Steven's explanations about how things worked, and of course, once he'd given her the tablet, she'd spent much of her free time browsing the internet and discovering all sorts of bizarre new things and asking all manner of horrible and embarrassing questions.

Conversely, Pearl had shunned humanity. All three of the original Crystal Gems had done so to start with, choosing one of the more isolated landmasses to set up base and warning humans away. But, she reminded herself, they'd had practical reasons for that; the corrupted gems had been drawn to their own kind and in those early days, when there were so may more of them roaming the Earth, it just made sense to stay away from humans and minimise the risk. Of _course_ it had taken them a long time to begin understanding their new home and the creatures they shared it with! Even Rose had only really begun interacting with humans in the last few hundred years and she hadn't really thought of them as much more than charming pets until Greg had come along. She'd tried dating a human once herself, not so long ago, and it hadn't worked out at all. The woman had been attractive enough from a distance, but once Pearl had actually gone on a date with her, she'd been disappointed to find that the woman was only interested in silly, shallow human amusements and had no desire to hear about the glorious battle for her planet's survival. The fact that she'd turned up with green hair hadn't helped either – but that had nothing to do with her superficial resemblance to Rose, it was just a sign that humans were fickle and flighty. Of course, that was exactly what Rose had found so attractive about them. And there was a thought – what if Peridot's fascination with Steven was just more of that same fetishization? She would break his heart and crush his spirit, just as Rose had done to the humans she'd entertained herself with.

No, the dismay she felt over this relationship was simply concern for Steven's welfare. She wasn't jealous at all. She wasn't jealous that Peridot had adjusted to life on Earth so quickly. She wasn't jealous that Steven looked at Peridot the same way Rose used to look at Greg. And she certainly wasn't jealous that nobody had looked at _her_ like that in a long, long time.

xxx

Greg listened to Steven's summary of events with rising concern, gasping with horror when Steven mentioned Jasper's unbubbling and the blow Pearl had given Peridot. He wasn't entirely happy to hear about their relationship either, albeit for very different reasons, but he was smart enough to know that now was absolutely not the time. Steven needed to feel that somebody grown-up was on his side, or he'd run away to become a rock star and cut off communication with his family for twenty years- OK, maybe he was projecting a little there, but it was true that none of the adults in his life had been there to support him when he needed them, and he was determined to learn from their mistakes.

"-And so we kinda don't feel all that comfortable going back there right now," Steven was saying, "so... we came here. Is- is that OK?"

Greg looked at his son's anxious face and felt his heart twist. "Of course it's OK, son! You're always welcome to stay with me. Peridot too. Where is she, anyway?"

"Oh, she's just outside," Steven said. "She was a little... apprehensive about coming with me."

 _Scared,_ Greg mentally corrected. And no wonder. "Go ahead and bring her in, it's fine." He followed Steven to the door and waited while his son ran off around the corner, and as soon as he was gone, Greg let out a small sigh of disappointment.

Four years ago, Steven had returned to Homeworld with Pearl and Garnet to rescue Lars. The plan had been to steal a small ship and then get the two boys home and out of immediate danger. Once the heat had died down, they would return for the Off Colors, who would've been much more difficult to smuggle past the guards. As it turned out, those fears had been correct; after Steven's escape, the space ports had been under intense scrutiny and their little group had been spotted as soon as they boarded a vessel. Battleships had been sent after them and Pearl simply didn't have the skill to evade the missiles in the new and unfamiliar ship. But Lars had started screaming in terror and that was when they'd discovered that he had portal powers like Lion. They'd arrived home and he'd immediately passed out from the strain and spent the next month in hospital under Doctor Maheswaran's supervision while the remaining rebels waited for Homeworld to retaliate.

The retaliation never came. Eventually, Garnet concluded that upon seeing their vessel destroyed, Homeworld must have decided to quit while they were ahead. True, they knew there were other Crystal Gems on Earth, but they believed Rose Quartz and her two most loyal followers were dead, and with the Cluster was close to emerging, it made little sense to send more gems to Earth when so many had already been lost there. The loss of Jasper was a massive blow, but after hearing from the Rubies, they must have decided that even with Rose's apparent demise, it was just too risky to make any more attempts to retrieve her.

And so as time had passed and even corrupted gem sightings dropped, Greg had allowed himself to hope that it was all over. No more monsters, no more danger, no more war and fighting and loss. Maybe his son could begin to lead a normal human life, like Rose had wanted. It was a little late to send him to school, but he could still take exams and go to college, get a regular job, buy a house, marry somebody, have children… live the American dream. Dating a gem did not quite fit in with that, something Greg knew better than anyone. But as Steven reappeared, hand-in-hand with Peridot, Greg made sure none of those thoughts were visible on his face. After all, Steven hadn't exactly had a normal life even before he'd moved in with the gems and started accompanying them on missions, so he could hardly blame Peridot for that. And she was a nice enough person, curious and eager to learn. The other gems had been on Earth for so long now that nothing really seemed to surprise them any more, but Peridot was still new enough to be amazed by things like musical instruments or fireworks or electric toothbrushes. Even the incident where she'd pushed him off of the roof was more funny in hindsight than anything else, and she was always happy to listen to his music recommendations.

"Hello, Mr Universe," Peridot said cautiously, coming to a halt before him.

Greg smiled cheerfully down at her. "I told you before, call me Greg. 'Mr Universe' is too formal for someone dating my son."

Peridot flushed and lowered her gaze. "Sorry… Greg."

"Hey, it's fine." Greg jerked his head back towards the building. "Look, I'm gonna go and lock up early. It's only an hour early," he added as Steven opened his mouth to protest. "And I doubt there's about to be a rush. We'll go back to the house and figure everything out, OK?"

"OK," the couple said in unison. They waited while Greg quickly shut down the machinery, switched off the lights and locked up, and then the three of them climbed into the van (even now, Greg still didn't quite believe his bank balance and kept the van close by just in case it had all been a scam and his house suddenly got repossessed) and drove the short distance home.

He parked the van in the garage and led the way inside, doing a quick mental calculation of the rooms in the house. Downstairs, there was the garage, kitchen, bathroom, living room and studio. Upstairs, there was his room, with en suite bathroom, Steven's room, and another room that been marketed as another bedroom but which was, in reality, filled with the contents of his storage unit. He cast a quick, sideways look at Peridot and frowned slightly. Should he try and move the junk out of the room or let her share with Steven? On the one hand, there was really nowhere to put the stuff. He'd stopped using the storage unit shortly after he'd moved into the house, and there wasn't space for it all in the garage, not with the car and van there. On the other hand, he didn't feel entirely comfortable with letting the two share a room and a bed. But there _really_ wasn't anywhere to put all the stuff right now. Maybe tomorrow, if things still looked bad, he could look into renting the unit back, but for tonight… "All right, make yourselves at home. All I ask is that you keep the bedroom door open and, y'know, behave yourselves," he said, trying to look stern.

"Right, yep, of course." Steven quickly agreed.

"And you need to call Garnet and let her know where you are," Greg continued.

Steven groaned. He knew his father was right, but he would've really much rather not, and hope Garnet's future vision would do the job for him so he didn't have to. But Greg was watching him, and there was really no way to avoid it, so he took a deep breath to steel his nerves, and pulled his phone out of his pocket. It immediately started to ring and he dropped it with a yelp of surprise.

Peridot shot out a hand and the phone froze before it could hit the ground. "It's Garnet," she said, floating it back up to him.

"Uuuugh," Steven whined. "I _hate_ when she does that!" But answering a call was easier than having to make one, so he tapped the screen and pressed the phone to his ear. "Hi Garnet," he said, trying to sound cheerier than he actually was.

"Steven. Am I correct in thinking you and Peridot are at Greg's?"

"Um, yes." Steven shuffled nervously from foot to foot. Was she angry? Her voice gave away nothing.

"I'm not angry," she said, almost as if she'd read his mind. "And no, I can't read your mind."

Steven pulled the phone away and looked suspiciously at it for a moment before gingerly putting it back to his ear. "Really?"

"Really." She went silent. Steven waited for a few seconds, then wondered if he was supposed to say something, but as soon as he opened his mouth, she started talking again. "Amethyst told me what happened. I understand that you two don't feel comfortable coming home just yet, but I just wanted to reassure you both that we're not upset, just… surprised."

"I see. And…" Steven caught sight of Greg and Peridot watching him, and turned away and lowered his voice. "Pearl?"

"Pearl stormed out of the house shortly after arriving back here," Garnet admitted. "She hasn't returned yet. I suggest that you both remain where you are until I've had a chance to properly talk to her."

The tiny flicker of hope that had been growing inside him immediately curled up and died. "Oh," he said, struggling to keep the disappointment out of his voice. "Well, when you see her, can you tell her… tell her I hope she's feeling better, OK?"

"I will do. Oh, and Steven?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you quickly explain how a giant, floating island found its way into the Burning Room?

xxx

A/N: The bit about Rose wanting to fuse with Garnet is apparently a scrapped episode idea I've heard can be found in the art book, and involves Pearl pressuring the newly-formed Garnet to fuse with her and Rose. I doubt it counts as canon, but it's an early warning sign of Pearl's unhealthy attitudes toward both Rose and fusion, which I found quite interesting considering how she behaved in both Rainbow Quartz and Sardonyx's debuts.


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

A few hours later, Peridot lay on the bed in Steven's room, staring up at the ceiling. Steven and his father were eating dinner, and although she had been invited to join them, she had declined so that she could be on her own for a little while and brood. Actually, if she were honest with herself, what she was really doing was hiding. Pearl had completely crushed her self-esteem and confidence and now even though she knew it was illogical, she couldn't help worrying that everybody else was just pretending to like her too. She couldn't bear the thought of sitting opposite Greg and looking up and seeing disdain in his eyes… or worse still, seeing it in Steven's eyes. She knew she was being paranoid and that Steven loved her just the way she was, even though she was a fairly weak era 2 gem, but until a few hours ago, she'd also thought Pearl liked her too and look at how wrong she'd been! No, she wouldn't risk it, she would stay up here on her own for a little while until her bruised ego had recovered, because that was an injury Steven's magic couldn't fix.

The thing her mind kept coming back to was Pearl's fixation upon fusion. She understood fusion a little better since coming to Earth and meeting the Crystal Gems, especially Garnet, but she still didn't understand why Pearl seemed to put so much value upon it. Then she remembered what Steven had said about fusion being a power rush and frowned. Pearl was definitely more formidable than any of the other Pearls she'd seen on Homeworld, and on Earth, she was treated with far greater respect and admiration than she ever could've dreamed of, but she _was_ still a Pearl, designed to be pretty rather than powerful, and therefore objectively weaker than the rest of her teammates. Perhaps her complaints about Peridot's lack of power were driven in part by her own feelings of inadequacy?

Or maybe she just hadn't got over that time when Peridot had called her a shiny toy. That was possible too.

Peridot rolled over and pressed her face into the pillow and let out a muffled groan. She heartily wished she'd never asked Steven to tell people about their relationship. It had been so much less complicated when nobody else knew!

She sighed and rolled back over again. She knew that wasn't really true. Privacy had been a concern and several of their dates had been crashed. And she also knew they would've been caught eventually and she suspected the fallout would've been far worse in that case. But at that moment, sneaking around in secret was looking like it had been a much nicer option. But unfortunately, Steven had destroyed the only known time travel technology on the planet, so there was no way of going back and changing things to stop Pearl from freaking out, even if it was something as small as stopping herself from making that comment about Greg and Rose fusing.

 _Fusion._

Once again, she found her thoughts drifting back towards the subject. Pearl's biggest complaint seemed to be that Peridot couldn't fuse. But was that true? The only time she'd even tried had been when Garnet had offered her the chance, and she'd panicked and backed out. The elder gem hadn't asked again, presumably not wanting to put Peridot under any pressure, but Peridot had never really known how to approach the subject herself, especially after the Crystal Gems had all returned to the Temple and contact between them all had dwindled. And _obviously_ it wasn't a subject she could discuss with Lapis Lazuli. So for the last few years, she'd continued to operate under the assumption that she couldn't fuse. But, she reminded herself, there had also been a time not so long ago when she'd been convinced that she had no powers at all, and that had turned out to be wrong. Maybe she was wrong about this too. It wasn't so difficult to believe that maybe the Diamonds had been lying about the limitations of era 2 gems in order to keep them under control. And even if it turned out she really _couldn't_ fuse with other gems, she probably _could_ fuse with Steven. Like he'd said, humans weren't supposed to be able to fuse either, but that hadn't stopped him from fusing with Connie.

She mulled over this for some time until she heard the sound of footsteps in the hallway outside and she sat up just as Steven entered the room. "Hey," he said softly, and sat down next to her. "How are you doing?"

"I'm all right. I was just thinking," she mumbled, leaning against him. "About fusion."

"Oh." Steven wasn't quite sure how to respond to that, so he gave her a gentle squeeze instead. "You know, you don't have to-"

"I'd like to try it now," she said abruptly, turning to face him. "With you."

"…Right," Steven said slowly. "Um. OK. Uh, I would, but maybe not right now? It isn't exactly the best time-"

Peridot frowned and pulled away from him. "You wanted to yesterday," she said moodily.

"I know, and I still do!" he quickly replied. "But I want to do it for the right reasons, not to prove a point to Pearl or anything. I want our first time to be a good experience! Don't you want that too?"

The mutinous look vanished from her face and she sighed and leaned in closer to him again. "I do want that," she admitted. "I just… wanted to see if I _could_ , that's all."

"Because Pearl said you couldn't?" he guessed.

"Well… yes." She blushed and lowered her gaze. "I suppose you're right though, it would be for the wrong reasons."

"We'll do it soon," he promised. "Together. And it'll be great. But in the meantime," he added, a twinkle in his eye, "do you wanna come downstairs and play Mario Kart with me and Dad? He's really looking forward to competing against people instead of the computer."

xxx

A few hours later, Peridot was alone once again. This time less by choice, and more because Steven and Greg had to sleep. She had no intention of going to sleep herself, she didn't trust her thoughts not to turn on her, but she would've quite liked to curl up in bed with Steven anyway. But she had a feeling that even though Greg had been extremely accommodating so far, climbing into bed with his son might be pushing things a bit – she wasn't completely ignorant, after all, she knew why he'd asked them to keep the door open. And so she'd chosen to stay downstairs with some mindless TV for company. She was just beginning to get invested in an old episode of Friends when she heard a sound behind her, and looked around to see Greg standing in the doorway.

"Sorry, didn't mean to disturb you," he said in a hushed voice. "I was just getting a glass of water." Then he paused thoughtfully. "All right, that was a lie. I kinda wanted to talk to you."

"Oh," Peridot said warily. She half expected him to offer her money to break up with Steven, like she'd once seen in an episode of Camp Pining Hearts, but instead, he just smiled benignly at her and closed the door.

"Yeah. It's weird, but I probably get what you're going through better than anyone else," he explained, dropping onto the sofa next to her. "From when I first started dating Rose."

"…Because Pearl was in love with her?" Peridot guessed.

Greg nodded. "She'd been in love with her for centuries, but of course, I didn't know that to start with. Anyway, she made it clear right from the start that she didn't like me and she didn't think I was good enough for Rose. But it was actually her meddling that made Rose and me closer. See, I'd kicked out my manger, Marty, and was experimenting with my music, and I asked the Gems if they'd be in a band with me."

"Pearl was in your band!?" Peridot blurted out in surprise.

"No, no!" Greg laughed. "No, she refused. Said it was ridiculous human nonsense or something. She used to stand at the side of the stage during rehearsals and glare at me to try and put me off. Anyway, one day I brought out a video recorder and taped us playing, and partway through the song, Pearl came on stage. I thought maybe she was gonna do something stupid like kick over the camera, but she just went over to Rose and whispered in her ear, and the next thing I knew, they'd both turned into a giant woman-"

"They fused?" Peridot interrupted in astonishment.

Greg nodded. "Rainbow Quartz. At first I just thought it was cool, but then Rose left and Pearl started taunting me, saying fusion was the ultimate connection between gems and that Rose would get bored of me because I was just a human and couldn't fuse. So… I decided to try it anyway, to prove her wrong."

Peridot tilted her head curiously. "Steven told me that you and Rose Quartz couldn't fuse."

"And he was right," Greg said simply. "I asked her to dance, but we didn't fuse, and when I said that was what I'd been trying to do, she laughed at me. But then we started talking, properly seriously talking, about us and our relationship and our future."

Well, Peridot thought to herself, that explained why Pearl had reacted so badly to her earlier comment. "But Pearl's not in love with Steven," she pointed out. "So there was no reason for her to act the same way towards me."

"True," Greg conceded. "But he _is_ Rose's son. Rose is gone, but he's a part of her and so I guess Pearl's a little overprotective of him because of that. She just wants what's best for him. I'm not saying you're not good for him," he hastily added as Peridot bristled. "I just think maybe… after losing Rose, maybe Pearl was sorta subconsciously hoping that he'd end up with someone a bit like her, and you took her by surprise. She'll come around," he finished brightly, silently hoping that was true, because it had taken Pearl near enough 25 years to finally accept that Rose had chosen him. "Just give her a little time."

"…All right," Peridot agreed. But then really, she didn't have much choice.

xxx

At around the same time, on the other side of town, Pearl warped back into the beach house. She took a few steps forward and then paused as she caught sight of Garnet, still sitting on the sofa with her book. "Hello," she said warily.

"Hello," Garnet replied calmly.

Pearl's eyes quickly flickered around the interior of the building, and she immediately spotted Steven's empty bed. "Where's Steven?"

"Not there." Garnet turned a page in her book. "Not in there either," she added as Pearl glanced towards the door to Peridot's room. "They're both at Greg's house. After you hit Peridot, they weren't in that much of a hurry to come back here."

Pearl flushed and turned away. "I still stand by what I said earlier. I don't think Peridot is a suitable partner for Steven, and her lack of powers make her a liability." She paused and struggled to get the next few words out. "I do… regret the way I lashed out at her though." That slap had lost her the moral high ground and she knew it. She wanted to argue that she had been provoked, but somehow, she didn't think Garnet would be particularly sympathetic.

Garnet suddenly snapped the book shut, making Pearl jump. "Do you know what Steven and Peridot were doing today before you and Amethyst interrupted them?" she asked, turning to face the other gem.

Pearl opened her mouth to answer, then thought better of it. "I… I don't know. Why-"

"They were experimenting with bubbles," Garnet answered. At Pearl's blank expression, she continued. "Peridot worked out that the destination of bubbles can be controlled. Her and Steven were practising to see if they could move bubbles – large bubbles – so that they could remove the Cluster from it's current position to some place safer, so that if Yellow Diamond did come here and defeat us, the Earth might at least not be destroyed by the Cluster taking form."

"Oooookay?" Pearl said cautiously, not quite understanding what point Garnet was trying to make.

"While they were gone, Peridot's decryption program managed to decode another file," Garnet carried on, nodding towards the door. "Her door is locked, and I'm not going to break it down to find out what the file says, but I'm sure it will be interesting."

"Oh, well if you like, I could probably-" Pearl began, taking a step towards the room.

"Don't you dare." Garnet didn't raise her voice, but there was an underlying menace there that made Pearl freeze in her tracks. "You're right about one thing. Peridot is physically the weakest member of the team. And yes, she's weaker than Connie. But you of all people should know that you don't have to be a strong warrior to be a valuable member of the team, and Peridot has demonstrated many times now that she can contribute to the team in ways beyond simply fighting. Like this information she took from the Kindergarten." She jerked her head towards the door again. "Steven has made progress curing corruption, but we still don't have a real cure. Maybe some of that data will help."

"And maybe it won't," Pearl countered. "For all we know, those files could be nothing more than ancient battle plans."

"Maybe," Garnet conceded. "But it's still possible." She reached up and dismissed her shades and stared beseechingly at the other gem. "Think about it, Pearl! After all these years, we might finally get our friends back! Do you really want to jeopardize that by alienating Steven and Peridot?"

She stood up before Pearl could answer, and began walking towards the Temple door. "I can't make you accept Peridot any more than I could make you accept Greg", she said over her shoulder. "But for Steven's sake at the very least, can you _try_?"


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT

Greg popped the last piece of pancake into his mouth, washed it down with the rest of his coffee, and placed the dirty crockery and utensils beside the sink. He glanced over at the clock on the microwave and frowned. If he didn't hurry up, he was going to be late for work. Of course, he owned the car wash now and if he chose to have a day off, he wasn't exactly going to go broke, but he'd skipped quite a few days recently and he didn't want it to turn into a habit. But then again, he also didn't want to leave Peridot and Steven alone in the house, unsupervised. He looked at the pair, who were quietly eating breakfast, and cleared his throat to get their attention. "So, what are your plans for the day?" he asked, trying not to sound too accusing.

"Uh…" Steven glanced at his girlfriend. "Well, we _were_ planning to build a new drill. We want to get the Cluster someplace safe. Maybe Mask Island?" he thought aloud. "The Watermelon Stevens could keep watch over it."

"It's something we would need to talk to the gems about," Peridot added. "Not just for their opinions; I would need to look at the wreckage of the ship and see if I can acquire another escape pod. The last one sustained significant damage on our previous trip."

A short silence followed her words. None of them really wanted to approach the gems just yet. "I guess we could start drawing up the plans and gathering the materials," Steven said finally. "I have my credit card, we could take a trip into town and buy some of the stuff from Radio Shack instead of pulling apart old electronics."

"That works, you do that," Greg said with relief. "OK, I'm gonna head off to work now. Call me if you need anything." He grabbed his keys and a few minutes later, they heard the sound of the vans engine as he drove away. Then there was silence.

Peridot drank the last of her orange juice and placed the empty glass next to Greg's dirty breakfast things. "Should I begin drawing up the plans now?" she asked.

"Sure. There should be some paper…" Steven paused and looked around, half-expecting to see a stack of paper next to the dishes. "Uh, somewhere. The spare room maybe?"

"Oh." Peridot pulled a face. "Would you help me look? I don't feel comfortable searching through your father's personal belongings myself without his approval."

"Sure," Steven said again and stood up. "Or I guess I could call him. He should've reached the car wash by now…"

He trailed off and they both looked at each other in silence as they both realized that they were alone in the house. "You know," Peridot said slowly, "the Cluster is stable for the time being, there's no real rush this time."

"You're right," Steven replied at once. "Plus like you said, we should probably talk it over with the others first. They might know some place better to send it."

"So…" Peridot took a step closer to her boyfriend and reached out to stroke his chest. "If we're not going to start work on the drill just yet, what do you suggest we do instead?"

"Hmm." Steven tapped his chin, pretending to think. "I might have an idea or two."

"Oh? Do you want to tell me what they are?"

"How about…" He leaned down and pulled her closer so that their noses were touching. "I just show you?"

Their lips met and for an instance, they were able to forget the circumstances that had lead them to that moment. Even the knock at the door wasn't enough to break the mood. The second and third knocks were another matter. Finally they separated. "Do you think if we ignore them, they'll go away?" Steven murmured.

As if on cue, there was another, even louder and more persistent knock.

"It would probably be quicker and quieter to see what they want," Peridot admitted.

"Ugh." Steven sighed and briefly closed his eyes in annoyance. "You're probably right. Wait here, I'll go get rid of them."

He jogged quickly through the house, hoping the visitor was just Jamie with a parcel, but when he pulled the door open, he found himself in front of Amethyst's raised fist. "God! Finally!" she exclaimed, pushing past him before he could stop her. "I was about to try shapeshifting my fingers into a key, and I don't like doing that, it feels weird."

"Good morning, Amethyst," Steven said dryly. "Would you like to come in?"

"Don't mind if I do," she said cheerfully. "So, where's Peridot? Is she decent? You took your time answering the door, did I interrupt anything… _important?_ " She waggled her eyebrows suggestively.

"You know," Steven said, stepping past her to head back into the kitchen, "comments like that are why I didn't want to tell you about us."

"Not because of Pearl's freak-out?" Amethyst poked her head around the kitchen doorway and grinned at Peridot. "Hey."

"Actually, that took me completely by surprise," Steven admitted.

"Why are you here?" Peridot asked bluntly.

In response, Amethyst held up a paper bag. "I just wanted to see how you two were holding up. I brought donuts," she added encouragingly.

"Oooh, from the Big Donut?" Steven asked, taking the bag and looking inside.

"'Course not, I have standards. I made them myself," she said proudly.

Steven paused, a donut halfway to his mouth and gave it a suspicious look. "What's in them?"

"Nothing weird, just the usual stuff. Jelly, chocolate cream…"

"Custard?" Steven added as a blob of creamy goo leaked out of his donut.

"Mayo," Amethyst corrected. "Anyway, I was pretty surprised too-"

"By donuts?" Peridot asked in confusion.

"No, Pearl's freak-out!" Amethyst exclaimed, hopping onto a bar stool. "Come on, pay attention here!" Behind her, Steven inched towards the bin and quietly dropped his donut in it before sidling back over to the island. "Of course," Amethyst continued, unaware that her culinary offerings had been discarded, "I shouldn't have been, it took her about 100 years to warm up to _me._ "

"What, seriously?" Steven asked in surprise. "Like, literally 100 years?"

"Yeah." Amethyst nodded and helped herself to a donut. "Obviously I never met her or anything, but I was made for Pink Diamond's army and Pearl was convinced I was a sleeper agent or something, left behind to assassinate Rose. Rose kept telling her the Diamond's didn't expect anything to survive their corruption wave, not her and certainly not me, but she still didn't trust me for the longest time." She huffed indignantly and sprayed sugar over the top of the island. "I got myself poofed by corrupted gems like, a million times, trying to prove myself. But finally, I won her over."

Peridot leaned forward. "How did you do it?"

Amethyst struck a pose. "I wore her down with my charm and good looks, of course!" Then she laughed and relaxed. "Nah, looking back, I think she was mostly just jealous Rose was paying attention to me. Once the novelty of my arrival wore off and Rose found other things to amuse herself with, Pearl stopped being such a salty bitch to me."

"So you're saying all we can do is wait?" Peridot sat back again, disappointment written all over her face.

"Don't look so down!" Amethyst leaned over and gave her a reassuring pat on the back. "OK, yeah, it took her 100 years to get used to me being around, but it took less than 30 for her to get over Greg. So she should be fine with _you_ any day now!"

"How did she look this morning?" Steven asked, reaching for another donut without thinking.

"Dunno," Amethyst admitted. "I hid in my room all night and there was nobody around when I came out this morning- are you all right?"

Steven gagged and spat his mouthful of donut into the bin. "Ack. 'Scuse me." And with that, he bolted from the room.

"Your boyfriend is weird," Amethyst commented.

"I should go-" Peridot began, sliding off of her bar stool, but Amethyst shot out a hand to stop her.

"Hang on, I wanna talk to you," she blurted out. "Nothing bad," she added as Peridot tensed. "I was just wondering… OK, this probably sounds big-headed, but for a while, I thought you had a thing for _me_?"

"Oh." Peridot relaxed again. "I did," she said honestly. "For a little while, at any rate."

"So what happened?" Amethyst asked with interest.

"You threw all my things in the ocean," Peridot pointed out.

"Whaaaaat!?" Amethyst gaped in outrage. "That was one time!"

Peridot held up a finger. "My limb enhancers."

"That was when you were evil, and I'm not sorry."

"My tablet," Peridot continued, holding up a second finger.

"Didn't actually end up in the ocean," Amethyst countered. "So it doesn't count."

"Only because my metal powers manifested at that exact moment," Peridot retorted. "The point is, you tried."

"OK, OK, fine. Two times-"

"My Pierre body pillow," Peridot continued mercilessly.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that one." Amethyst grinned cheerfully. "That thing was ugly. I did you a favor."

"It cost fifty bucks!" Peridot snapped. "And it was _mine!_ "

"OK, OK, I get the picture." Amethyst rolled her eyes. "Anything else?"

Peridot thought for a moment. "I also didn't appreciate being fed misinformation about Earth. It severely hampered my acclimatization."

"I wasn't that bad-"

"You told me that if I put a slice of cheese in the DVD player, it would play a short film about cows," Peridot snapped. " _And_ you told me if I put a chicken nugget in a box and gave it water and corn, it would turn into a live chicken- it's not funny!" she wailed as Amethyst burst out laughing.

"In my defense," Amethyst said, wiping away tears of mirth, "I never expected you to actually believe me."

"Steven made a pumpkin dog out of a seed, why wouldn't I believe you?" Peridot said, a little sulkily. "I watered that thing for three months until Lapis got fed up and threw it in the ocean!"

"Ahh, good times. I get your point though, I'd make a crummy girlfriend," the purple gem said cheerfully, almost sounding proud of that. "So what about Lapis?"

"Oh, we haven't told her yet-" Peridot began, then paused as Amethyst laughed and shook her head.

"No, I mean, you and Lapis weren't a thing then?"

"Lapis?" Peridot let out a cackle of astonished laughter. " _Lapis_ Lapis? You're joking me, right?"

"That's a no then?"

"No! She's just a friend!" Peridot wrinkled her nose up slightly. "I mean, I like her, but…"

"She's a psycho?" Amethyst suggested with a grin.

Peridot glared at the other gem. "She's vulnerable," she corrected. "After trapping herself in a fusion with Jasper for so long. She's not ready for a relationship with anyone."

"Yeah, because she's a psycho," Amethyst repeated flatly.

Steven, who'd been eavesdropping outside the doorway, decided now was probably a good time to come back in. "OK, well, it was nice to see you Amethyst. Thanks for the donuts."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Anyone would think you're trying to get rid of me."

He gasped, trying to look outraged. "I would never! Well. OK, I am."

"I just got here. Besides," she smirked, "you two could use a chaperone-"

"Go away," Steven said firmly. "But thank you for coming to see how we are," he added hastily.

"Yeah, OK, I'm going." She slid off her stool and grabbed the bag of donuts. "I know when I'm not wanted. Just stay safe, and don't do anything I wouldn't do. Actually, no. Don't do anything I _would_ do."

Steven rolled his eyes and began herding her towards the front door. "Bye, Amethyst!"

"Thank you for the donuts!" Peridot called after them.

"Seriously though, thanks for coming," Steven said quietly as they moved through the house. "It means a lot."

"Not as much as the possibility of naked alone time while you have the house to yourselves though, huh?" She cackled with laughter as a deep blush spread across his face. "I'm kidding! I'll let Garnet know you two are doing all right. And I won't let her know you two are doing-"

"BYE Amethyst!" He slammed the door and leaned against it for a moment, waiting for the heat to die down in his cheeks. Once he'd managed to regain control of himself, he went back into the kitchen where Peridot was waiting. "Sooo…" He leaned on the island, trying to look suave instead of flustered. "Where were we before we were so rudely interrupted?"

Instead of answering, Peridot looped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips against his. "I believe we were somewhere around here," she murmured once they'd parted for air.

"Are you sure?" he said a little breathlessly. "Or were we about… here?" He kissed her again, harder this time, letting out a moan of desire as her lips parted and her small body pressed up against his own. "Do- do you wanna go someplace more comfortable?" he asked when they parted again.

Peridot grinned up at him. "An excellent idea!" She broke out of his embrace and skipped out of the kitchen.

Steven followed close behind and turned towards the living room, intending to make for the sofa, then paused when he realized Peridot was heading towards the stairs. "Where-?"

She smirked back down at him. "Your bedroom, of course."

"M-my bedroom?" he stammered.

"That's where your bed is, isn't it?" She tilted her head slightly in confusion. "Or did you have someplace else in mind?"

"No, r-right! Of course! The bed's fine!" he squeaked, Amethyst's words popping back into his brain with a vengeance. He shook his head to dismiss the thought and tried not to stare too hard at Peridot's butt as she walked in front of him.

Once she reached his room, Peridot made straight for the bed and reclined upon it, and Steven's brain shut down. Was this really happening? Or was he misreading the situation thanks to Amethyst's crude comments? He and Peridot had talked plenty about fusion, but not about sex. Was he ready? Was _she_ ready? Maybe she really did just want to make out some more and he was just leaping to conclusions.

Seeing his hesitation, Peridot sat up straighter. "Steven? Is everything all right?"

"S-sorry." He cleared his throat nervously and sat down next to her. "I um, I was just… we're just making out, right? Or…?"

Peridot sat up fully and swung her legs back over the edge of the bed. "If that's what you want."

"What do _you_ want?" he asked.

"Me?" She blushed and looked away, fiddling with the corner of the blanket. "I… I want you."

"You already have me." He smiled softly, and leaned forward to give her a quick peck on the lips. "so what do you want now?"

"I want you to kiss me," she said at once. "Touch me. Make me feel loved."

"I want that too," he whispered, and kissed her again. Peridot wrapped her arms around his neck and fell back against the pillows again, pulling him down with her.

They continued to make out passionately for several more minutes, both wanting more but neither one quite daring to make the next move. Wandering hands slipped between layers of fabric and fingertips grazed bare skin, darting away immediately as if burned.

In the end, Peridot was the first to crack. She squirmed free of Steven's embrace, but before he could protest, she pushed him back down onto the bed, straddled his hips and grabbed the hem of her t-shirt, intending to pull it over her head, when a sudden series of loud knocks on the door downstairs made her freeze in panic.

"Ignore them," Steven said at once.

"It might be Amethyst again," Peridot pointed out.

Steven remembered the other gem's comment about shapeshifting into a key and groaned. "Aww jeez. All right." He shifted slightly and belated realized he wasn't in any fit state to answer the door himself at that moment. "Can uh, can you get it? And if it _is_ Amethyst, you have my permission to poof her."

Peridot snorted with laughter. "Very well. I'll be as quick as I can." She gave him another quick peck on the lips, and then reluctantly climbed off of him just as there was another knock at the door. "All right, all right, I'm coming," she grumbled, almost tripping down the stairs in her haste. She dashed through the house, yanked the door open, and found herself face to chest with Pearl. "Oh!" she exclaimed in surprise, and took a hasty step backwards.

Pearl hadn't been prepared for Peridot to be the one to answer the door, and took a startled step backwards herself. "Peridot!" She quickly recovered and smiled nervously. "I, ah, I understand if you don't want to speak with me-"

"Oh, good," Peridot said with relief, and closed the door again. She skipped back up the stairs and almost bumped into Steven as he was coming out of his room.

"That was fast," he commented. "Was it Amethyst?"

"Pearl," Peridot corrected. She leaned up to kiss him, and was rather insulted when he pulled away.

"Pearl?" he repeated curiously. "What did she want?"

"I don't know," she said a little sulkily. "She said she understood if I didn't want to speak with her, so I shut the door again."

"OK… you know she was just saying that to be polite, right?" Steven said slowly. "Maybe you should, y'know, talk to her."

"But I don't want to," Peridot whined. "We're _busy._ " But even as she said it, she could feel the mood evaporating. "What if she gets mad at me again?" she asked in a small voice.

"I'll come with you," he offered at once.

Peridot bit her lip and then nodded slowly, and the two of them made their way back to the front door. Pearl had begun to walk away, but she spun around when she heard the sound of the door opening. "Ah! Peridot!" Then her eyes flickered over to Steven and widened slightly. "Steven!"

"Hello Pearl." Steven crossed his arms and angled his body so that Peridot was slightly behind him. "What can we do for you?"

"I-I wanted to apologize to you," she said, taking a few nervous steps back towards them. "To both of you. I shouldn't have tried to interfere in your relationship with Connie," she said to Steven. "I just wanted to help. And I shouldn't have slapped you," she added, leaning sideways slightly so that she could see Peridot properly. "I overreacted, and I'm sorry. I hope you'll both come back home soon" She smiled hopefully and waited.

"Well, we'll have to-" Steven began.

"Is that it?" Peridot interrupted, wrinkling her nose.

Pearl blinked and looked at Steven for help. "Um… did I miss something?"

"Yes!" Peridot glared at the other gem from somewhere around Steven's bicep. "Do you really think this is just because you meddled and hit me?"

"Uh…" Pearl stared helplessly back at her. "Yes?"

Peridot took an angry step past Steven, who half-shot out a hand to restrain her and then thought better. "You called me a Homeworld gem! And implied that my lack of powers made me an unsuitable partner for Steven even though Connie has even fewer powers!"

"Oh, that." Pearl laughed self-consciously. "Yes, well, we both said things we didn't mean-"

" _I_ didn't," Peridot corrected. "I mean, I am very sorry my comment upset you. I didn't know that Greg had attempted to fuse with Rose Quartz after you did, but I did know you loved her and it wasn't very nice of me to bring up their relationship to make a point. But while I would like to fuse with Steven at some point, I don't believe _our_ relationship will be a failure if I can't do it."

Pearl opened her mouth, and then closed it again and swallowed. "I…. right. Yes. Then… I apologize for calling you a Homeworld gem."

"Hmm." Peridot narrowed her eyes. "See, the problem is, I'm not entirely sure I accept your apology."

"Peri-" Steven said uncomfortably, reaching out to her, but she shrugged him off and continued talking.

"I think you're just saying what you think I want to hear so that Steven will come back home. You apologized to him first, not me, and then it was for the wrong reason." Peridot felt angry tears forming at the corner of her eyes and blinked them away. "I wasn't upset that you slapped me. Well, I was," she corrected. "What upset me more was that you saw me defy Yellow Diamond, you know I was the one who poofed Jasper, you know I helped save the Earth, and you still didn't think of me as a Crystal Gem. I don't really know what else I need to do to prove myself, but I'm not going to spend 100 years killing myself to get you to accept me just because you're angry Steven's paying attention to someone else! Come on, Steven," she snarled, grabbing him by the hand and stomping back inside the house. "Let's go and have sex!"

The door slammed shut in Pearl's shocked face. On the other side, Steven found himself being pulled through the living room by his irate girlfriend until he yanked his hand free. "Um, Peri, maybe we need to talk," he said hesitantly. "Pearl's really trying, you know-"

"Good," Peridot snapped. And then she burst into tears. Steven immediately pulled her into a hug and kissed the top of her head until she got herself back under control. "I'm sorry," she sniffled, and wiped her eyes. "I'm just…" She hesitated, trying to think of the right words. "Everybody keeps talking about _Pearl's_ feelings here. And it feels like I'm not allowed to be upset, because she's upset more."

Steven winced. "Sorry."

"It's OK," she mumbled into his shirt. "I know you didn't mean it like that. But I'm just not ready to accept her apology just yet. Just give me a little more time."

"As long as you need," he promised.

They stood there for a few seconds longer, then Peridot leaned up and kissed him on the lips. "So… do you want to go back upstairs?"

Before Steven could reply, there was another knock at the door, and they jumped apart at once. "I'll get it," Steven said quickly. He walked back to the front door, quietly praying it wasn't Pearl again, and flung the door open.

"Hello, Steven." Garnet smiled sweetly and stepped past him before he could stop her. "I thought I'd come and see how you and Peridot are getting on with the plans for the new drill."


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER NINE

"-And we lost two of the drill heads. But we're not trying to destroy the Cluster this time, so a single drill should be sufficient," Peridot explained, pointing to the relevant part of her plan, which had been scribbled on the back of an envelope. "And that's what we have so far." She gave Garnet a hopeful smile. "So… that's it."

Garnet ignored the hint and picked up the envelope, examining it carefully. "I see you changed the blaster controls."

Peridot's smile slipped slightly, and she sighed and nodded. "Steven is more familiar with the newer Nintendo controller these days."

"I'm pretty good at keeping zombies out of my garden," Steven added helpfully.

"Are you sure you'll even need the blaster this time?" Garnet asked.

"Yes?" Peridot looked blankly at her. "I know we've since bubbled a lot of the Cluster experiments, but we don't know how many-"

"I meant because presumably we'd be drilling from another location," Garnet interrupted. "Andy sold the land the barn was on, remember?" she added as they both stared blankly back at her. "We can't drill there again. Well, we could," she continued thoughtfully. "But the new owners would probably complain and get in the way. And I don't think it would be wise to drill on the beach either."

"Uh…" Peridot glanced over at Steven, who shrugged helplessly. "Well, we'd still need to drill somewhere nearby, otherwise the trajectory will be completely wrong, so we should assume there will still be some fusion experiments around. I don't know where we should drill though. I still don't really know enough about the geography of this planet."

"What about the Kindergarten?" Garnet suggested. "I know, it's creepy," she added as Steven groaned. "But we don't have to stay there this time, we could just warp in to work during the day. There's plenty of space in which to work, and more importantly, it's isolated, so it's unlikely that anybody's going to go poking around when we're not there. Besides, I'm sure Peridot could rig up a security system of some sort."

"Of course I could." Peridot puffed up proudly.

"Then it's settled." Garnet nodded firmly. "We'll start as soon as you're ready. Steven? Would you mind making a cup of coffee?" she asked abruptly.

He blinked in surprise. "You want a drink?"

"I have a sudden craving." She smiled sweetly at him. "Make it a fancy one."

"Uh, OK." He stood up and walked out to the kitchen and searched through the coffee pods for something interesting. As he waited for it to filter through, he glanced over at the time on the microwave and sighed. It was almost lunchtime, and he had no idea if his father was planning to come back, but considering how the day had gone so far, it was probably wise to assume he was. Even if Garnet left now, there wouldn't be time to pick up where they'd left off. Still, maybe it was for the best. Next time, they'd plan for it, make it more romantic. He'd make sure there were flowers and music and candles and that everybody else was at least twenty miles away on the other side of several locked doors.

Back in the living room, Garnet turned back to Peridot. "I want to apologize to you," she said abruptly.

"Why? What have you done?" Peridot asked, bewildered.

"It's more what I haven't done," Garnet said cryptically. "I haven't been a very good leader," she elaborated as Peridot continued to look blankly at her. "As you know, we Crystal Gems have been isolated on Earth for millennia, and not much has changed for us during that time. Of course, human civilization had its advances, but we mostly stayed away from them, and they stayed away from us. Finding Amethyst was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to us, until Rose fell in love with Greg and decided to have Steven. The first few years without her were hard, but after a while, we fell into a routine. And then Steven freed Lapis, and you showed up, and everything changed." She sighed and leaned forward, resting her elbows on her thighs. "When you asked to stay behind in the barn, it was something of a relief. It meant I could kid myself that everything was back to normal. Homeworld coming back onto the scene terrified me, and so I tried to ignore it by clinging to everything that was familiar. And as a result, I found myself leaving you – and Lapis – out of things."

Peridot gaped at the elder gem. "But… that's completely illogical!"

"I know." Garnet smiled wryly. "You had information about the current state of Homeworld, their technology and society. Lapis's power on Earth dwarfs ours combined. And yet, even when Steven was taken, I didn't think to ask either of you for help. And then of course, when everything settled down again, I saw even less need to involve you. After all, you both seemed happy enough where you were."

"I was, mostly," Peridot said honestly. "But I was also upset about not being included in missions. After you all made such a big deal out of me becoming a Crystal Gem, it hurt to be ignored. But I didn't know how to bring it up." She hesitated for a moment, and then continued. "I thought… maybe you were all mad at me. Because I reported that list of names that got Steven taken."

"I don't blame you for that at all," Garnet said firmly. "That happened back when you worked for Homeworld, long before you learned the value of life on Earth. Ruby, Sapphire, Pearl, Lapis… we've all done things for Homeworld that we regret. But I'm sorry you felt that way."

"Thanks," Peridot mumbled.

"Anyway, the reason I bring it up is because I feel somewhat responsible for Pearl's attitude," Garnet carried on. "If I'd made more of an effort to integrate you into the team, perhaps she wouldn't have reacted the way she did. It doesn't excuse her behavior, of course, but it may have been a factor."

"Maybe." After what Amethyst had said earlier, she wasn't convinced, but she appreciated Garnet's apology anyway.

Garnet stood up. "I understand that you're not ready to talk to Pearl yet, so I won't ask you to come home. Just do as much as you can here please."

"I will," Peridot promised, already mentally drawing up plans for a security system to install in the kindergarten.

"Here's your coffee- oh." Steven stopped when he saw that Garnet was now standing. "You're leaving?"

"I am," she said simply.

"But… your coffee…" He looked down forlornly at the mug of coffee in his hands. He'd even squirted whippy cream on top and sprinkled it with cinnamon.

"Oh, it's not for me."

She smiled sweetly at him and as if on cue, there was yet another knock on the door. A moment later, they heard the sound of the key in the lock, and then Greg stepped inside. "Steven? Oh hey, there you are." He grinned happily at his son. "Wow, that's some coffee!"

"It's for you," Steven said at once and held out the mug.

"Ooooh!" Greg took the mug and took a sip as Garnet walked past him and out of the door. "This is a nice welcome home. You two can definitely stay as long as you want."

xxx

Two additional people in the house meant that Greg was inspired to make something a little more substantial than his usual dinner of ramen. Alas, his enthusiasm was tempered by a severe lack of ingredients, but still, everybody agreed that the Spanish omelet was delicious.

"So how was your morning?" Greg asked, gathering up the dirty crockery. "Did you get your planning and shopping done?"

Peridot and Steven exchanged guilty looks. "Um, no, not really," Steven admitted. "But that's because Amethyst, Pearl and Garnet all showed up," he quickly added without bothering to go into any further detail.

"I did get _some_ planning done," Peridot pointed out, waving her envelope aloft. "So we could purchase some of the parts this afternoon."

"In that case, could you pick up some groceries too?" Greg asked.

"Sure," Steven said with resignation. They were definitely going to have to leave the house now. "What do you need?"

"Uh…" Greg glanced at the fridge. "I guess it depends on how long you're planning on staying."

A short silence followed his words. "Um, I don't know," Steven said slowly, glancing over at Peridot, who blushed and pretended to be deeply fascinated by a stain on her shirt. "We'll have to talk about it. But definitely the rest of the day, if that's OK."

"Of course it's OK!" Greg quickly reassured them. "In that case, we're definitely gonna need more milk and bread. And I'll make meatloaf for dinner."

"Sounds great!" Steven waited while his father scribbled down a list, and then he and Peridot stepped outside and began walking towards the bus stop that would take them to the city part of Beach City. They didn't have to wait long, and it wasn't a long trip, so soon they were walking down the main street towards the electronics store.

"Right," Peridot began, unfurling her own list. "I need solder, PC boards, retention cords, relay switches, flux capacitors-" She paused and laughed at his blank expression. "Grab a basket and follow me."

Steven obediently grabbed a basket, took a step after her and then wisely decided to grab a second basket while he was at it. He followed after her as she confidently strode down the aisle, grabbing components seemingly at random and tossing them to him. "Ah, a drone kit!" she exclaimed gleefully, pouncing upon it. "With a few minor modifications, that will be perfect for the security system!"

"What sort of modifications?" Steven asked with interest. He may not have known what all the stuff she was buying was for, but her enthusiasm was infectious and he wanted to learn.

Peridot thought for a moment. "I was thinking automatic lasers. Maybe electric shock weaponry too."

Steven was immediately reminded of the strange… _thing_ he and Connie had found themselves battling after finding his mother's armoury, and he shuddered slightly. "Isn't that a little dangerous? What if someone gets hurt?"

"Oh, don't worry," Peridot said dismissively. "The repulsion field still seems to be operating perfectly adequately-"

"The what field?" Steven interrupted in confusion.

"Repulsion field," Peridot repeated. "You know, the energy field that keeps humans away…?" She trailed off, seeing that he still didn't understand. "Gem structures on alien planets tend to have a low-level energy field surrounding them that repels the more intelligent lifeforms on the planet. In this case, primarily humans, crows and pigs-"

" _Pigs!?_ " Steven snorted with laughter. "Seriously?"

"Pigs are extremely intelligent animals," she said sternly. "Anyway, as I was saying, the fields are always particularly strong around Kindergartens. Homeworld doesn't want the native species interfering in Kindergarten production, after all. And have you ever seen a pig near the Kindergartens? No, you have not." She folded her arms smugly.

"Wait, so is that why all those places are abandoned?" Steven asked, amazed. "Because they've got the gem version of anti-Muggle charms on them?"

Peridot laughed. "That's one way of putting it. But yes, the repulsion field makes humans avoid those areas."

"Huh. That makes so much sense," Steven mused aloud. "I just assumed people didn't care. Do you think there's one at the Temple? And that's why people don't really come around to that part of the beach?"

"Oh yes, there's definitely one there." Peridot scanned the back of the kit, handed it to Steven and then picked up a second one. "It's not very strong though. I imagine it was just designed to keep people away so they wouldn't try and enter Garnet's bubble room."

"But… Buddy Buddwick found all those places," Steven said slowly. "He even wrote a book about them."

"Well, a particularly determined human can force their way through the field," Peridot admitted. "Especially when they know there's something there. If it helps, I can make the weaponry non-lethal to organic life," she offered.

"That'd be great," Steven said with relief.

They spent almost two more hours browsing for parts before paying, and then Steven had the bright idea of bubbling their purchases and sending them to Greg's house. "I need all the practice I can get," he said reasonably as Peridot protested. "I mean, if I can't send this to the right place, I probably shouldn't be trying to send the Cluster anywhere, right?"

"Ugh, fine. You're right." She stepped back and watched as he screwed up his face in concentration before tapping the top, and crossed her fingers behind her back, hoping it hadn't gone to the Temple, partly because he really was right, and partly because she still didn't want to go back there.

Her eyes drifted to a clothing store across the street and she frowned, rubbing the small stain on her shirt again. While it was true that she didn't want to face Pearl again just yet, she had to admit, she missed the house and her room. She didn't have her tablet, she hadn't been able to check on her computer, and she'd been wearing the same clothes for two days now and was beginning to feel quite grubby. And she missed having her own, private space. While Greg hadn't seemed to mind her being downstairs in the house while he and Steven slept, it wasn't the same as having her own room to retreat to, and she felt awkward and in the way, like she had when she'd first moved into the beach house.

"Peridot?" Steven waved a hand in front of her face and she jumped back with a startled yelp. "Whoops, sorry, didn't mean to startle you," he apologized. "Are you ready to go to the grocery store now?"

"Yes. Sorry." Peridot snapped back to attention. "Steven? Do you wish to return home?" she asked abruptly.

"What? Now?" Steven asked, baffled. "But we haven't brought the food yet-"

"Not your father's house," Peridot interrupted. "The beach house!"

"Oh." Steven looked wary. "Not unless you want to."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "That's not what I asked."

"Well… I guess I kinda do," he admitted. "I mean, I like staying at Dad's occasionally, but like you just said, the beach house is _home_. I've lived there for more than ten years. And…" He trailed off awkwardly.

"You miss the Crystal Gems," she guessed.

"Yeah." He sighed. "I'm sorry-"

"You don't have to apologize," she said sharply. "They've been your caretakers for many years, it's understandable that you would miss their presence."

He smiled slightly and gave her hand a quick squeeze. "It's only been a day though, and I've seen them, so it's not so bad. I guess it's more that I miss… well, the normal stuff."

Peridot nodded slowly. "I understand, I think." She took a deep breath. "Then let's go back." She held up a hand as Steven began to protest. "The longer we stay away, the harder it will be to return," she said reasonably.

Steven still looked dubious. "But what about Pearl? You were pretty upset earlier."

"Oh, I haven't forgiven her," Peridot said, almost cheerfully. "But I need to face her eventually. Besides," she huffed, "it's our house, not hers!"

Steven couldn't hold back a snort of laughter at that. "Well, if you're really sure…"

"I am."

"Then we'll go back. After dinner," he added, holding up the shopping list. "We can't let Dad down! But if you change your mind, that's fine too," he added softly. "We can leave again any time."

Reassured, she leaned up and gave him a quick kiss. "Thank you." Then she grabbed the list from him and skipped a few paces away. "Come on. Let's go shopping!"

xxx

Steven wasn't quite sure what he'd expected upon their return later that evening, but he was almost disappointed by how uneventful it all was. Greg had offered to let them stay another night, but now that her mind was made up, Peridot was determined to go back before her resolve left her and so after dinner, he sent the bubble containing their drill equipment on ahead and they walked the short distance back to the beach house and the Temple, hand in hand. As they walked around the headland and the structure came into sight, Peridot faltered slightly, and Steven gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "We can still go back," he said softly.

Peridot shook her head and took a deep breath, straightening up resolutely. "Let's do this."

They walked up the steps and pushed open the door to find Garnet and Amethyst in the middle of a video game. "Welcome home," Garnet greeted them, keeping her gaze fixed firmly upon the television screen.

"Yeah, hi. FINISH HIM!" Amethyst roared, making them both jump. "Come on, G, fatality!"

There was a nasty crunching sound and a scream from the television, and Steven winced. "Where's Pearl?" he asked, looking around.

"In her room," Amethyst said, madly button-mashing as the next battle began. "Hiding."

"Speaking of which," Peridot muttered, and walked over to her own bedroom door and unlocked it.

"Keep the door open!" Garnet called after them as Steven followed her into the room.

Steven rolled his eyes but did as he was told, batting a few green-bubbled strawberries out of his way. "Do you want me to get rid of these?" he asked as Peridot made for her dresser.

"Yes please," she said gratefully, pulling out a clean shirt and holding it at arms length as she critically examined it. "See if Amethyst wants them or something. Oh!" she exclaimed, finally catching sight of her computer screen. "My program! It's decrypted another file."

"Oh yeah?" Steven began herding the bubbles out of the room. "What it is?"

Peridot scanned the screen and frowned. "I'm not sure," she admitted. "I'll take a closer look at it later after I've changed." _And caught up with my cheeps,_ she added internally. Garnet probably wouldn't approve of her priorities, but it wasn't like the file was going anywhere.

Steven nodded and then left the room so she could change. Amethyst immediately abandoned the game and took possession of the strawberries. "I'll make jelly," she said gleefully, grabbing a large saucepan. "Lots and lots of jelly!"

It was almost normal. Steven helped Amethyst chop up strawberries and when Peridot emerged from her room, Garnet persuaded her to take up Amethyst's abandoned avatar, and when the jelly was done, they all watched TV for a while in companionable silence. Nobody mentioned Pearl again.

Finally Steven yawned and stretched. "I really have to sleep now guys, sorry."

"All right, we'll see you in the morning then," Garnet said, and stood up. "Bright and early. Then we can get to work."

"Oh yeah, the drill." Amethyst turned to Peridot. "Do you wanna come and look at your old ship junk now?" She smirked wickedly. "Or are you gonna stay here and tuck Steven into bed?"

Peridot tilted her head back slightly so that she could look down her nose at the other gem. "Steven is perfectly capable of tucking himself into bed," she said haughtily. Then she smirked back. "I am going to kiss him good night though." Then she spun around and wrapped her arms around Steven's neck and kissed him full on the mouth.

"Ugh. Gross." Amethyst made sick noises behind them. "Put him down, you don't know where he's been!"

"Good night," Peridot said to him, ignoring Amethyst entirely. "I love you."

"I love you too." He gave her another quick peck on the lips and reluctantly disentangled himself. "Good luck with your junk hunt or whatever."

"I'm going now," Amethyst called out, following Garnet towards the Temple door.

"All right, I'm coming." Peridot ran after her and they both disappeared into the Temple.

xxx

The remains of the ship had been in far worse shape than Peridot had ever imagined, but eventually she was able to rig up a power source and activate another escape pod. Not wanting to disturb Steven, Amethyst agreed to keep it in her room until the morning, and Peridot made her way back to her own room.

The interior of the beach house was in darkness when she stepped out of the Temple; she'd lost track of time while she was working and it was later than she'd expected. She looked up to the loft where Steven was sleeping and smiled fondly. Would it be creepy if she went up there and watched him? Yes, she reluctantly concluded, she'd worked that much out from television. Instead, she decided she would go to her room and work on her fanfiction, which she hadn't touched for several days now, and she was halfway there when the Temple door opened again. She turned around, half-expecting to see Amethyst again, but deep down, she wasn't entirely surprised to see that it was Pearl with a box in her hands.

"Oh." Pearl froze. "I-I thought you'd be in your room."

"I'm going there now," Peridot said shortly and turned around again.

"Right." Pearl swallowed hard and placed the box on the kitchen counter. "I'll um, I'll be out of your way then."

Peridot sighed and debated whether or not to take the bait. They weren't going to get anywhere like this, she reluctantly concluded, and turned back. "What's in the box?"

"Um…" Pearl's gaze danced around the beach house, avoiding the other gem's. "It's donuts," she finally answered. "For you and Steven. I thought… maybe you could both share them for breakfast. I was just going to leave them here, I thought you'd be in your room."

"Oh. Thanks." There was an awkward pause. "From the Big Donut?" Peridot finally asked, more to break the silence than anything else.

"Oh, no." Pearl screwed up her face in disgust. "No, the last time I went there, the donut girl was picking her nose. I made them myself. Amethyst taught me how."

"Right… what flavor are they?" Peridot asked warily.

"Raspberry and lime," Pearl said, blushing slightly. "I… thought that combination worked best."

"Oh! Thanks!" This time, Peridot's reply was a bit more enthusiastic, and a small smile appeared on her face as she peeped into the box and saw the donuts with their glossy green and pink swirled icing. It was a peace offering, she realized. And while she still wasn't quite ready to forgive Pearl, she was willing to acknowledge that it was a nice gesture. "Well, I'll be going back to my room now-" she began.

"I'm jealous," Pearl blurted out. "I didn't want to admit it to myself, but I am." She sighed and hugged her arms around herself. "Steven's all I have left of Rose, and I'm terrified of losing him too."

"Oh," Peridot said cautiously.

Pearl smiled a little bitterly. "I've always been too possessive of him. The first time he met Sugilite, I was upset by how much he admired her. I wanted him to look up to me the most. I was even jealous when he spent time with Greg. Then when he said he was in love with you, all I could think was that you were taking him away from me. I know it's not healthy," she continued. "I should've been happy for him, for both of you, but I wasn't. Part of me still isn't. But that's my problem, I shouldn't have taken it out on you."

Peridot wasn't sure whether she should be agreeing or making sympathetic noises, so she said nothing, and after a moment, Pearl started talking again.

"I'm envious as well. I adored Rose Quartz from the moment I joined her side, but I always knew I loved her far more than she loved me. I wanted the kind of relationship you two have, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't make her love me enough." Tears shone in Pearl's eyes. "Part of me hates her for that. And I hate myself for hating her, because it wasn't her fault."

"Uh… there, there." Peridot walked a little closer and tentatively patted the other gem's shoulder.

A small snort of laughter bubbled out of Pearl's mouth and then the tears spilled over. "I'm truly sorry. I've behaved terribly."

"Yes, you have," Peridot said without thinking, and then hurriedly stepped back out of reach. "Ah, I mean-"

"No, you're right." Pearl sighed and wiped her eyes. "Not just towards you, to everyone. I don't expect you to forgive me at once, but I am going to try and do better." She straightened up and stepped back. "I hope you both enjoy the donuts. And Peridot?" For the first time, she met the younger gem's eyes. "I'm sorry I said you were still a Homeworld gem. I know how much it hurts when somebody looks at you and only sees what you used to be. But when you did it to me four years ago, you honestly didn't know any better. I had no such excuse." And with that, she turned and walked back into the Temple.

"Uh… thanks, I guess," Peridot muttered under her breath. It was a slightly backhanded apology… and yet, it was still a better one than the one she'd received earlier. She took another look at the donuts with their pink and green icing and smiled.

It was a start.

XXX

I'm so sorry this chapter's late, I've been having computer problems and it took a couple of days for me to sort out. But it's all fixed now, and I'll start working on the next sequel shortly. Thank you for reading!


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